Mining

History

DIAMO, state enterprise, Stráž pod Ralskem is the legal successor and continuous continuation of the activities of the National Enterprise Jáchymovské doly Jáchymov, founded on 1 January 1946, and other successor organisations, including the organisation Czechoslovak Uranium Industry, founded on 1 July 1967.

Thanks to the rapid development of exploration work and newly discovered deposits, particularly in western Bohemia, Příbram, Vysočina and northern Bohemia, uranium production gradually increased significantly. The highest production of 3 036 tonnes of uranium was already reached at the end of the 1950s. Since the beginning of the 1960s, production has stabilised at a total output of around 2 700 tonnes of uranium per year. 

A radical decline in production occurred after 1989, following a government-announced phase-out programme, when production fell to around 600 tonnes of uranium per year within 5 years. Commercial mining of uranium ore in the Czech Republic ceased on 31 December 2016 in accordance with Government Resolution No. 50 of 25 January 2016.

Currently, uranium is only extracted as a by-product of the remediation of the rock environment after chemical uranium mining at the Stráž pod Ralskem deposit and from the treatment of mine water from the Příbram and Rožná deposits.