Bleiberger Bergwerks Union
The Bleiberger Bergwerks Union ( BBU for short ) was a mining and metallurgical company that had its headquarters in Bleiberg in Carinthia and had an extensive industrial area in Arnoldstein near Villach. It was created in 1867 through the merger of several independent mining unions. The Union's main line of business was to extract lead and zinc from underground mines . The BBU is named after the main mining site in today's Bad Bleiberg community , which was mentioned as Pleyberg in a document from Bishop Werntho of Bamberg in 1333 , which indicates that the coveted raw material was extracted at an early stage.
In 1938 the company was nationalized for the first time, again in 1946 on the basis of the Austrian Nationalization Act of June 26, 1946. Mining was finally given up in 1993 after the joint stock company was dissolved and the BBU was privatized.