Closed siderite iron-ore mine at Nadabula, Rožňava, one of Slovakia's major iron-ore workings, active from the Middle Ages until 1993.
The Nadabulská baňa formed part of the extensive Rožňava iron-ore field, a hydrothermal siderite deposit spread across some 48 square kilometres of the Spišsko-gemerské Rudohorie mountains in eastern Slovakia. Mining in the Rožňava area has a documented history stretching back to the 13th century, initially for precious and non-ferrous metals and then, from the second half of the 17th century, increasingly for iron ore. The Nadabula locality — today a suburb of Rožňava, incorporated in 1960 — was one of the key working areas within the overall ore field.
The mine operated as part of the Železorudné bane Rožňava state enterprise during the communist period and ceased production in June 1993 following a government decision to wind down Slovak iron-ore mining. The deposit is characterised by hydrothermal siderite vein-type mineralisation within metamorphic rocks, and the ore field contains over 40 individual veins.
The ore field at Rožňava, encompassing the Nadabula area, has been exploited since at least the early 13th century, when the mining settlement of Rosnoubana is first documented. The banícka osada of Nadabula itself was settled between 1320 and 1335 alongside Čučma and other outlying mining communities. The first phase of extraction focussed on gold, silver, and copper, with the earliest textual reference to iron-ore working on the Banská strana above Rožňava Baňa dating to 1546.
In the second half of the 17th century, iron-ore extraction began to expand significantly as the precious and non-ferrous metal deposits were nearing exhaustion, and siderite became the dominant commodity across the ore field. The Andrássy family and later the Rimamuránsko-šalgótarjánska ironworks company played leading roles in developing iron-ore production around Rožňava, including at the Nadabula sector, during the 19th and early 20th centuries. After the Second World War the mine was nationalised and became part of Železorudné bane, national enterprise, Spišská Nová Ves, before the formation of the dedicated Železorudné bane Rožňava enterprise in the early 1950s.
During the communist period an extensive investment programme modernised and deepened workings across multiple sectors of the ore field, including Rožňava Baňa, Nadabula, Mária Baňa, Čučma, and others. In the 1970s and 1980s the enterprise employed around 1,200 workers and was among the largest employers in the region. Iron ore extracted at Nadabula and sister sectors was transported for processing at the Nižná Slaná plant from the mid-1970s.
Following a government decision in 1990–1991 to implement a programme of contraction in Slovak ore mining, iron-ore extraction at the Rožňava complex was finally halted in June 1993. The Rožňavská Baňa mine at Nadabula is recorded by Mindat as a hydrothermal siderite vein-type deposit where mining ceased in 1992–1993. The deposit has also been the subject of geological and geochronological research, with the Rožňava-Nadabula ore field studied for its Alpine metamorphic mineral assemblages and the Jurassic–Cretaceous age of its hydrothermal vein formation.