November 2013-Bor is situated in the south east of Serbia and has approximately 40,000 inhabitants. The town has built up around the large copper mining and smelting industry, which has been in 24/7 production for 100 years. The landscape is dominated by huge opencast mines as well as the, literally mountainous, waste heaps by products of the copper mining and production process: flotation tailing, mining and processing waste waters, rising air pollution to a lethal level. The RTB Bor Group is a serious environmental hot spot in Serbia. It is also a potential regional risk spot, since the collapse of its tailing dams would release high amounts of toxic materials that could reach the Danube river. Photographs: Saša Čolić
