Bor, Serbia

The name is derived from Serbo-Croatian: bor / бор meaning "pine".

The town is bordered by the Kriveljska River, and in its vicinity lies a reservoir, Bor Lake.

In 1835, Miloš Obrenović invited J.G. Herder offspring August to the Bor region to carry out geological investigations.

Đorđe Vajfert invested in exploration and sought foreign capital to initiate industrial exploitation. Managing to obtain support for this endeavour, he signed a contract with Mirabaud, and his Compagnie française des mines de Bor was established on 30 September 1903 in Paris.^[7]

On 27 March 1941, Nazi Germany invaded Yugoslavia. Führer’s directive No. 25 mentioned that possession of the Bor copper mines were very important, which covered 50 percent of the copper requirement of Nazi Germany's war industry until 1944. Since 1941 to 1944, Hungarian forced laborers of Jewish origin were gradually deported to this area, at least 6,000 Hungarians were used as Kapos. In May 1943, the total number of inmates (excluding Kapos) came to about 23,000 forced laborers from Serbia.^[8][9]

On 3 September 1944, a column of about 3,000 Kapos left the camp under supreme command of Horthy task forces and marched over a pontoon bridge between Smederovo and Požarevac to Baja via Pančevo. Hungarian forces were supported by regional paramilitary operation echelon Deutsche Mannschaft including Banater Staatswache unit.

On 16 September, a second column of 3,000 Kapos left the camp under supreme command of SS-Polizei-Gebirgsjäger-Regiment Nr. 18 on the same route to Baja. In Pančevo, supreme command had been taken over by paramilitary operation echelon Deutsche Mannschaft and Volksdeutsche Ordnungspolizei. During both marches, exhausted prisoners were murdered by the roadside.

In Baja arrived, prisoners were either used to build the German South-east wall or transported by train to concentration camps such as Auschwitz.

Some Danube Swabian officials including family members also took the opportunity to escape by train from Baja. During both forced marches, there were several attacks carried out by Yugoslavian Partisans south of Danube river. Meanwhile, some prisoners took the opportunity to flee to the partisans and thus found life-saving protection. Notable Kapos from both death marches were people like Gyula Trebitsch, and Miklós Radnóti.^{[10][11][12][13]}

In 1947, Bor received urban status from the political authorities. At the time its population was 11,000.

In June 2018, Bor gained the status of a city, along with Prokuplje.^[14]

Aside from the city proper area, the city includes the following settlements:^[15]

• 
  Gornjane
• 
  Zlot
• 
  Metovnica
• 
  Šarbanovac

According to the 1910, 1931 and 1971 censuses, the inhabitants of the urban area of Bor numbered 2,613 in 1910, 4,749 in 1931 and 29,118 residents in 1971. According to the 2011 census, the population of Bor numbered 48,615 residents, while the urban area of Bor had 34,160 residents.^[18][19][20]

Copper mining, mainly by the biggest employer Zijin Bor Copper, is the key basis of Bor's economy. On 31 August 2018, a Chinese mining company Zijin Mining took over 63% of the shares of the company RTB Bor, in a $1.26 billion deal with the Government of Serbia.^[24] A few Canadian companies operated in Bor, like Nevsun Resources, Dundee, Rakita and Avala resources, while the new smelter and sulfuric acid plant for RTB Bor were built by Canada's SNC Lavalin. Many companies from Canada, led to Canadians settling in the city and thus formed a new ethnic group in Bor.^[25] It is supposed that there are up to 10000 Chinese workers, as well those from Turkey, India, Indonesia, African countries etc.^[23] Apart from mining, some other companies that operate in Bor are Messer Tehnogas AD, Jinshan Construction, Drillex International, Sayin Construction, CCMC, Wolong ATB FOD, IT Center Bor, Metalka, Keramika Bor, Sandvik, Xella Sverige, Securitas, Epiroc etc. Bor is one of the wealthies cities in Serbia. In 2025, the average gross monthly wage in the city of Bor was US$1750 (€1500, 175687 RSD, 12455 CNY, 73200 Turkish liras) - as of July 2025.^[26]

The following table gives a preview of total number of registered people employed in legal entities per their core activity (as of 2024):^[27]

Today there are five elementary schools in the city and three in the villages nearby:

1. Elementary school "Dušan Radović" (Bor)
2. Elementary school "3. Oktobar" (Bor)
3. Elementary school "Branko Radičević" (Bor)
4. Elementary school "Sveti Sava" (Bor)
5. Elementary school "Vuk Karadžić" (Bor)
6. Elementary school "Petar Radovanović" (Zlot)
7. Elementary school "Đura Jakšić" (Krivelj)
8. Elementary school "Stanoje Miljković" (Brestovac)
   1. Elementary music school "Miodrag Vasiljević" (Bor)
   2. Elementary and High School for special education "Vidovdan" (Bor)

Four public and one private High School:

1. Grammar school "Bora Stanković" (Bor)
2. Mechanical High School (Bor)
3. Technical High School (Bor)
4. Economic High School (Bor)
5. "Dositej" Academy - School of Medicine (Bor)

Bor has a faculty of University of Belgrade, which is the only faculty that belongs to the University of Belgrade but is outside of the Belgrade. The Technical Faculty of Bor^[28][29] is a faculty of the University of Belgrade, with a tradition dating back to 1961. The Faculty was accredited as a scientific-research organisation in the area of technical-technological science in 2007. So far, 1,804 students graduated from this faculty, in addition to 18 students that completed specialist studies, 122 master studies, and 70 students that defended doctoral theses.

1. Technical faculty of Bor, University of Belgrade
2. Technical and mechanical engineering college Trstenik (department)

In the municipality of Bor, there were 40,661 eligible citizens that were able to vote in the local election.^[38][39] The local City Election Commission stated that the turnout was 61.2%.^[39] The Serbian Progressive Party won 15 seats, while the coalition led by the People's Party won 6 seats. The Socialist Party of Serbia and Vlach Party "Bridge" both won four seats, while the coalition led by the Party of Freedom and Justice won three seats. The Dveri–POKS coalition, Fighters for Bor, and Loud for the Youth each won one seat.^[40]

More information Party, Votes ...

Party		Votes	%	Seats
	Serbian Progressive Party	8,794	36.44	15
	Narodna–DS–VNS–ZZS–BSP	3,802	15.76	6
	Socialist Party of Serbia	2,677	11.09	4
	Vlach Party "Bridge"	2,447	10.14	4
	SSP–PSG–VS–RIRI	2,238	9.27	3
	Dveri–POKS	1,017	4.21	1
	Loud for the Youth	876	3.63	1
	Fighters for Bor	774	3.21	1
	Enough is Enough	699	2.90	0
	United Serbia	490	2.03	0
	Serbian Radical Party	316	1.31	0
Total		24,130	100.00	35
Registered voters/turnout		40,661	61.20
Source: RIK[39]

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• Vane Bor (1908–1993) surrealist artist.
• Aleksandar Miljković, footballer
• Đorđe Vajfert (1850–1937), first owner of mines and donator of Saint George's Church.
• Samu Borovszky (1860–1912), historian and editor-in-chief of works on the counties of the Kingdom of Hungary; his surname can be translated as The Boronnese (people from Bor).
• Tanja Ćirov (1981–), was a Bulgarian - Serbian female professional basketball player, former Bulgarian national team player.
• Nikola Ležaić (1981–), Serbian film director/screenwriter/film producer.
• Boriša Đorđević (1953–), Serbian retired football player, winner of European Cup with Hamburger SV in 1982–1983 season, Bundesliga champion two times, and Yugoslav champion with Hajduk Split. Former national team player of Yugoslavia.
• Ivan Gvozdenović (1978–), Serbian retired football defender who currently works as a manager.
• Branislav Mihajlović (1953–), member of the National Assembly of Serbia, and leader of "Enough is enough" association.
• Nikola Šainović (1948–), Prime Minister of Serbia from 1993 to 1994 and the minister of Energy and Mining of Serbia and the Deputy Prime Minister of Serbia from 1991 to 1993.
• Bobana Veličković (1990–2020), Serbian female sport shooter, competed at Summer Olympics in 2012 and 2016.
• Teya Dora (1992-), the singer of "Džanum", a song that became very popular worldwide due to the social platform TikTok, was born in Bor.

Bor is twinned with:

• Bar, Montenegro
• Le Creusot, France
• Khmelnytskyi, Ukraine
• Kitwe, Zambia
• Kriva Palanka, North Macedonia^[49]
• Shanghang County, China
• Vulcan, Romania
• Vratsa, Bulgaria

• Bor Airport
• FK Bor
• RTB Bor
• List of places in Serbia