Niksic Municipality

Nikšić demonstrates that resource endowment determines survival. While Berane's textile mills and Mojkovac's lead mine closed when Yugoslav markets collapsed, Nikšić's industrial base persists because sitting beneath its 66,700 residents are 135.2 million tonnes of bauxite—one of Europe's largest reserves. You cannot relocate an ore body, and global aluminum demand does not care which political system extracts it. Montenegro's second-largest city survived the 1990s transition by exporting geology rather than ideology.

Socialist planners built Nikšić's industrial ecosystem in the 1950s through 1980s around the mineral wealth of the Nikšić field. The Rudnici boksita mines extracted bauxite, which fed Podgorica's KAP aluminum smelter (120,000 tonnes annual capacity) via dedicated railway to Bar's port for export. Željezara Nikšić steel mill employed thousands producing construction steel for Yugoslav development projects. Trebjesa brewery (now Molson Coors-owned) supplied beer across the federation. Wood processing plants harvested surrounding forests. At peak, this industrial complex made Nikšić Montenegro's manufacturing heartland, the place that built things while the coast served tourists and the capital administered.

The transition decades tested resilience. Željezara steel mill passed through multiple owners—Serbian, Turkish, now Montenegro's Neksan Group—each attempting profitability under changing market conditions. Production fluctuated, employment contracted, but the facility never fully closed as Berane's and Mojkovac's did. The bauxite mines continued operating because KAP smelter needed feed stock and transport infrastructure (mines-railway-port) already existed. Trebjesa brewery survived by brand strength: Nikšićko beer holds 70%+ market share in Montenegro, making the facility too valuable to shutter. The municipality's 65,705 residents now concentrate in its urban core, surrounded by Montenegro's largest municipal land area—space that once held industrial workers now returns to agricultural use.

By 2026, Nikšić's industrial sector faces the modernization dilemma: continue extracting bauxite under current methods or invest in 'green metallurgy' and circular economy principles that European markets increasingly demand. Željezara pursues solar power integration and efficiency upgrades. The bauxite reserves guarantee another century of potential extraction, but profitability depends on adapting to carbon pricing and environmental regulations that Tito's planners never imagined. The city that survived by having resources beneath it must now prove it can extract them according to rules written in Brussels.