In 1880 Handlová had 3,137 inhabitants and nine out of ten of them spoke German; in 1910 it had 4,248 and the proportion had barely moved. Around 1900 the coal under the valley finally found buyers — Count Pálffy took an interest — and industrial mining began in 1909. On 15 February 1913 the railway from Prievidza reached the town, and that is the date from which the coal could actually leave. Within a generation a German village of a few thousand farmers had become the largest brown-coal working in the country, and the people who came to dig were mostly Slovaks.V roku 1880 mala Handlová 3 137 obyvateľov a deväť z desiatich hovorilo po nemecky; v roku 1910 ich bolo 4 248 a pomer sa takmer nezmenil. Okolo roku 1900 sa na uhlie pod dolinou konečne našiel kupec — záujem prejavil gróf Pálfi — a v roku 1909 sa začala priemyselná ťažba. 15. februára 1913 prišla do mesta železnica z Prievidze a to je dátum, od ktorého mohlo uhlie skutočne odchádzať. Za jednu generáciu sa z nemeckej dediny niekoľkých tisíc roľníkov stala najväčšia hnedouhoľná baňa v krajine — a kopať sem prichádzali väčšinou Slováci.
