Pek (river)

The Pek is a river in eastern Serbia. It is a 129 km long right tributary of the Danube,

The Pek originates from two major headwaters, Veliki Pek and Mali Pek (Serbian Cyrillic: Велики Пек and Мали Пек; Great Pek and Little Pek). The Mali Pek comes down from the northern slopes of the Liškovac mountain, flows to the southwest through the city of Majdanpek, one of the major mining centers of Serbia (city's name itself, Majdan pek, means Mine on the Pek). After a short course, the Pek reaches the western side of the Homolje mountains and flows in into the river Lipa at the village of Debeli Lug. Measured from the Lipa source, Pek is 129 km long, measured from its own, 110 km. Near the confluence of the two rivers is the reservoir of Veliki Zaton (or Valja Fundata), artificial body of water used as a tailing pond for the nearby mines. The Lipa (or Veliki Pek) springs out on the western side of the Veliki Krš mountain, near the village of Lipa. It flows straight to the north, following the western side of the Mali Krš mountain, next to the villages of Vlaole, Jasikovo (where it receives the left tributary Jagnjilo/Јагњило) and Leskovo before it meets the Pek. Shortly after the confluence of Lipa and Mali Pek, the river receives the small stream of Todorov (Cyrillic: Тодоров) from the left, and Železnik (Cyrillic: Желеник) from the right. The Pek continues to the north, curves between the mountains of Homolje and northern Kučaj, next to the villages of Blagojev Kamen and receives the rivers Brodica from the right and Komša and Kisela Voda from the left.

This section of the river course both begins and ends with a gorge. At the village of Rečica, the Pek enters the Kučevska klisura (Cyrillic: Кучевска клисура; Gorge of Kučevo). The river receives from the left the stream Gložana (Cyrillic: Гложана) and from the right the Dajša (Cyrillic: Дајша), makes an elbow turn to the north at the village of Neresnica, leaves the gorge and enters the Kučevska kotlina (Cyrillic: Кучевска котлина; Depression of Kučevo) where the regional center Kučevo is located. The Pek continues to the north through the Kaonska klisura (Cyrillic: Каонска клисура; Gorge of Kaona), between the villages of Kaona and Turija. The river makes another elbow turn, next to the villages of Sena, Lješnica and Mišljenovac and enters Braničevo.

In the final section, the Pek gently makes a big curve to the east. Braničevo is the lowest part of the Pek valley, so the river spills in several arms and passes next to many villages (Zelenik, Klenje, Mrčkovac, Miljević, Šuvajić, Donja Kruševica, Tribrode, Braničevo, Kusiće, before it empties into the Danube east of the town of Veliko Gradište. In this section, important left tributary is the Češljebarska reka (Cyrillic: Чешљебарска река).

The Pek drains an area of 1,236 km2 The exploitation was continued in medieval Serbia, Austro Hungarian naturalist and traveller Felix Kanitz who visited the Pek area in 1858, wrote that the old name of the town of Kučevo was "Chrisovehia" (meaning "Old Gold[en Land]", in Serbian "Starozlatija"). After the 1950s, gold extraction switched to separation from the copper ore, while the traditional way of gold panning almost completely died out. The traditional placer mining, in the form of gold panning, is the most used type of gold prospecting, and has survived until the 21st century, though the number of prospectors dropped. Wooden and modernized plastic pans are used. Environmentalists considered this a victory. Then the Minister of Mining and Energy Zorana Mihajlović stated that it was actually the government which temporary closed the mine, cause they sent an inspection to the Jama. Asked why the government didn't react earlier, she indirectly accused grand corruption. This prompted "Zijin" to issue a statement that the inspection only ordered halting of the construction of the new ventilation shafts, and that mine is not shut down. In May 2021, Zijin stated they fulfilled all requirements of the inspection, and even more, by cleaning some of Mali Pek, one of Pek's two headstreams, from waste sediments which were building up for decades.