19th century.
During the past hundred years, the pace and extent of development of the Ugljevik region has been determined by coal production. With the increased need for coal, coal exploitation began in 1899, and a narrow gauge railway was built from Rača, on the Sava river, to the Ugljevik coal-mine via Bijeljina in 1919. Subsequently this railway was upgraded to normal narrow gauge, and later was connected to one of Ugljevik’s communities, Mezgraja, in 1938. This was the last narrow gauge railway in the Europe before it was closed on May 26, 1979.
The coal from Bogutovo Selo surface mine has a calorific value of 2,550 kcal/kg (10.68 MJ/kg), and it is estimated that the reserves are sufficient to satisfy the needs of four 300megawatt coal-fired power plants.
It is thanks to these coal giants that almost all of Ugljevik’s corporations developed.
After the Bosnian War Ugljevik became a significant peacekeeping force post. For the first time after the World War II, Russian (then Soviet) Army and Western Allies worked together in a military mission, as Implementation Force (IFOR) and later Stabilization forces (SFOR). Headquarters of Russian Peacekeeping Mission in Bosnia was in Ugljevik. Americans had a small base in Ugljevik, across the Janja river from the Russians. In relation to this, IFOR info magazine “Talon” wrote in one of its issues “Cold War melted on the Balkan sun”
