1948–1989 Mines, factories and blocks of flatsBane, fabriky a paneláky

Under communism the town was made a district seat and an industrial centre, and it grew more in forty years than in the previous six hundred. Iron and copper ore was still being dug in the valleys immediately south, at Rudňany and Slovinky, and engineering plants went up in the town itself; whole estates of prefabricated flats were built to house the people who worked in them. It was steady work and it looked permanent. Almost none of the mining survived the 1990s.Za socializmu sa z mesta stalo okresné sídlo a priemyselné stredisko a za štyridsať rokov vyrástlo viac než za predchádzajúcich šesťsto. V dolinách hneď na juh — v Rudňanoch a Slovinkách — sa stále ťažila železná a medená ruda a v meste pribudli strojárske závody; pre ľudí, čo v nich pracovali, vyrástli celé panelové sídliská. Bola to istá práca a vyzeralo to natrvalo. Z baníctva neprežilo deväťdesiate roky takmer nič.