From silver mines to smartphones
What does Jakob Fugger, a 16th-century merchant from Augsburg, have to do with the smartphone in your pocket? Students from Jakob-Fugger-Gymnasium Augsburg and the Crakow International School went to Banská Bystrica, Slovakia, from 3rd to 8th October 2026 to find out.
At the second International Fugger Youth Conference (IFYC26), funded by Erasmus+, they met their host students at ZŠ Moskovská 2, Banská Bystrica, which was once a hub of the Thurzo-Fugger copper trade.
Highlights of the week:
🔹 Presentations of the connections of Augsburg and Krakow with Banská Bystrica for more than 500 years ago until now
🔹 The Thurzo-Fugger exhibition: how copper and silver mining shaped the region and helped the Fuggers prosper
🔹 Hodruša-Hámre, Slovakia’s last active gold mine: more than 98% of the rock is waste that has to be finely ground and stored, and gold makes up only a few grams per tonne
🔹 A historic mine, where students experienced how hard it was to work underground in the dark
🔹 The UNESCO World Heritage town of Banská Štiavnica, with mining history through VR in the Journey through Time
🔹“Raw material flows – The Paths of raw materials from 15th century till now“ – lecture by doc. RNDr. Stanislav Jeleň, Csc. and his students from the University of Matej Bell in Banská Bystrica
🔹 The recycling company ZEDKO: one tonne of old smartphones and similar devices contains up to four times more silver, copper and gold than one tonne of rock from Hodruša-Hámre
🔹 Taking old phones apart with a raw materials kit and matching the parts to the periodic table
The week ended with a reception at the Town Hall hosted by Deputy Mayor Martin Majling. One student team summed it up as a „chance to learn in a fun way how the world of raw materials works.“
Thank you to everyone who made this happen!
Detailed daily reports with impressive picture galleries will be published soon! Stay tuned…
