The largest and most completely explored of a group of three copper mines, located near Stara Zagora, central Bulgaria. The earliest exploitation of the malachite ore beds, by open-cast mining, is dated to the 4th millennium bc Karanovo VI period, with later utilization in the Late Bronze Age. Although the mines lie close to a row of Chalcolithic tells in the Azmak valley, the copper artefacts from those tells are not made of Ai Bunar copper; however, substantial quantities of this ore have been discovered in settlements in Moldavia and the Ukraine (Cucuteni-Tripolye culture).
The Macmillan dictionary of archaeology, Ruth D. Whitehouse, 1983Copied