Room II

Brown coal mining in the Nógrád coal basin until 1945

The exploration of the coal deposits around Salgótarján began in 1848 in the Inászó puszta. In 1855, Austrian railway engineer János Brellich and Viennese quarry owner Gergely Windsteig acquired the coal licenses for Inászó , and then they bought the coal exploration rights on the Jankovich estate in Salgótarján. The entrepreneurs received a permit to establish a coal mining company and build a railway.

The Szent István Coal Mine Company was founded in 1861, and in 1863 the construction of the Pest-Salgótarján railway line began. The railway line was opened in 1867, which became the first line of MÁV from 1868. As the legal successor of the Szent István Coal Mine Company, the Salgótarján Coal Mine Co. (SKB Co.) was founded in 1868. Over the years, SKB Co. merged small and medium-sized county plants and several large national plants, thereby operating as the largest coal mining company in Hungary.

In the first two decades, the workforce consisted mostly of non-Hungarian skilled and unskilled workers from the territory of the Monarchy. Mostly Slovak and German miners came from Upper Hungary, and Slovenian (" gráner "), German, Czech and Moravian miners came from Austria. By the turn of the century, the coal basin's mining workforce became predominantly Hungarian due to the fact that part of the local Palóc population, who had previously engaged in agricultural activities, took up employment in the industrial and mining sectors, which offered a better livelihood.

After the Austro-Hungarian Compromise (1867), a mine founding fever began, which resulted in the creation of numerous smaller, short-lived mining enterprises in Nógrád.

After 1890, three larger mining companies operated in the coal basin in addition to SKB Rt. The Northern Hungarian United Coal Mine and Industrial Company Rt. (ÉKI Rt.) was founded in 1881. It built its headquarters in Baglyasalja. ÉKI Rt. merged with SKB Rt. in 1925.

The Salgótarján Iron Refining Company (since 1881 its legal successor is the Rimamurány-Salgótarján Vasmű Rt. -RMSV Rt.) began coal exploration in Salgó in 1869. The company's mining center was built on the Salgóbánya site.

After 1900, the focus of mining shifted to the deeper coalfields and the central and southern parts of the coal basin. The Nagybátonyi Szénbánya Rt. was founded as a more significant company in 1920, which operated under the name Nagybátony-Újlaki Egyesült Iparművek Rt. between 1927 and 1945.

SKB Rt. became the country's largest industrial company between the two world wars, with wide-ranging interests.

During World War II, the mines operated as wartime plants. In 1942, the county's coal production reached 17.8 million tons. Hungary became a war zone, and at the end of 1944 the mines were paralyzed, and most of the machinery was taken away by the occupiers as war booty.