Czechia closes its last hard-coal mine after two centuries

The Czech Republic’s last black-coal shaft will cease operations at the end of January, closing more than 250 years of deep-mining tradition and marking the end of an industry that once underpinned the rise of heavy industry across Central Europe, according to foreign media reports.

The remaining tons of coal are being extracted this month from the kilometre-deep shafts of the CSM mine in Stonava, near the Polish border, as persistently low global coal prices and Europe’s industrial and environmental transition erode demand for what was long considered the region’s most valuable commodity.

State-owned OKD had originally planned to shut the mine three years ago, but Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 sent energy prices soaring and temporarily delayed the closure. Now, for the final time, miners travel into the depths on the underground railway, the beams from their headlamps sweeping across steel supports as machinery cuts into the coal face.

“It is sad that the shaft is ending. It is hard work but good work,” said Grzegorz Sobolewski, a Polish miner who is considering taking a job at one of the still-operating shafts across the border in Poland. “I will miss the work, I will miss the shearer,” he added, referring to the cutting machine that slices coal from the seam. Nearby, another miner shouted instructions over the thunder of equipment noise that will soon vanish from the basin.

OKD director Roman Sikora said the mine’s great depth had ultimately become an unsustainable disadvantage. “Global coal prices are low, while our mining costs are ever greater with the ever greater depths we go to,” he noted.

Coal mining in the Ostrava region began in the late 18th century, transforming a rural part of the Habsburg Empire into an industrial hub. Major investors, including the Rothschild family, poured money into railways, steel mills and supporting infrastructure, drawing tens of thousands of workers to what became one of the region’s leading heavy-industry centres. The sector received another boost after Communist nationalisation in 1948; by the 1980s, the basin employed more than 100,000 miners and OKD produced up to 25 million metric tons of coal annually.

The collapse of communism in 1989 brought rapid decline. Heavy industry unravelled, mines began to close, and tens of thousands of miners lost their jobs. After the privatised OKD went bankrupt a decade ago, the state took control to phase out operations. By last October, output had fallen to just 1.1 million tons for the year, and the workforce had shrunk to 2,300, with another 1,550 set to lose their jobs in the coming months.

According to Jan Belardi, an economist at the Technical University of Ostrava, the 1990s and early 2000s were the most difficult period for the region as it struggled with mass layoffs and the gradual arrival of replacement industries. Unemployment today stands at 6.6 percent—still above the national average but far from the crisis levels of the post-communist years—thanks to retraining programmes and a wave of foreign investment that followed the Czech Republic’s accession to the EU in 2004. “Being on the border with Poland and Slovakia, this region had a significant influx of foreign direct investment such as South Korea’s Hyundai,” he said.

Mining has also left a severe environmental legacy, including polluted lagoons, ground subsidence and derelict surface facilities. The region is set to receive 19 billion crowns (about $908 million) from the EU’s Just Transition fund, intended to support areas affected by the bloc’s decarbonisation policies, Belardi said.

While Poland still employs around 70,000 workers in black-coal mining—with unions securing guarantees to keep the industry running until 2049—surface mining of lignite in western Czechia is expected to continue only for several more years.

OKD itself is planning for a post-mining future. The company intends to remain active in coal trading and is developing new projects, including a battery park, a data centre and a small methane-fired power plant that will use gas seeping from the old shafts. “We have quite grand plans with OKD in the future,” Sikora said.

By Tamilla Hasanova