The town Olovo was first mentioned in the year 1382 under the name "Plumbum" (Latin for lead). The word olovo in Bosnian means lead, and the name was given to the town for its well-known lead ore deposits. Olovo stands on the Sarajevo–Tuzla highway M18, and is located 50 km northeast of Bosnia and Herzegovina's capital city of Sarajevo. Olovo is located in the Zenica-Doboj Canton. Recently, there have been attempts to make Olovo part of the Sarajevo Canton; however, the town remains within the Zenica-Doboj Canton . Since the Middle Ages, the town has been well known for its lead ore deposits, and Olovo was a mining town during medieval Bosnian state period, when the town and the region were part of the Pavlović's Land ().
