AJKA

post-1945 industrial town, Veszprm megye (county), west-central Hungary, 15 miles (24 km) west of Veszprm in the Csinger valley in the Bakony Mountains. Ajka developed as a small coal-mining village in the late 19th century, but major growth occurred in the mid-20th century. In 1942 the German occupation forces began bauxite exploitation of a deposit considered to be Europe's largest. Ajka now has an aluminum furnace, an alumina works, a glassworks, food-processing facilities, and a telecommunications parts factory. Major brown-coal-mining centres in the vicinity are Halimba, Szoc, and Nyird. Manganese is mined at rkt. Pop. (1989 est.) 34,000.