Brown coal mining at the Bílina mine will end in 2033, Czech Mining Authority confirms

Brown coal mining at the Bílina mine in northern Bohemia will end by 2033 at the latest. The Czech Mining Authority confirmed this in a decision published on its official notice board. The Ministry of the Environment and the semi-state ČEZ Group, which owns Severočeské doly, agreed in mid-May to end mining in 2033. The original deadline was 2035.

Severočeské doly itself requested that mining end by 2033 at the latest, rather than the date in its original application. The Czech Mining Authority accepted the request, amending the original non-final decision by the District Mining Authority in Most to extend mining at Bílina. The decision limits mining until 31 December 2033. According to the decision, specific proposals for phased reclamation must be drawn up in cooperation with landscape character assessment specialists, biologists, municipalities and local initiatives.

The authority added to its decision that remediation after mining ends will be gradual and follow a set timetable. It must not be unnecessarily delayed unless there are demonstrably justified interests in protecting nature or the landscape, or another overriding public interest.

Environmental group Greenpeace welcomed the earlier end to mining, having appealed an earlier decision to extend it. “After years of uncertainty, we now have clarity: Coal mining in Czechia will end by 2033 at the latest, as the Czech Mining Authority has now confirmed in its decision. It is sad that it was the mining company, not the state, that ultimately called for an end to coal,” said Jaroslav Bican, head of Greenpeace Czech Republic’s energy campaign.

“At the moment, miners are still extracting coal within the original territorial and environmental limits at Bílina, meaning the 2015 change to the limits has not yet affected mining at the Bílina mines,” Severočeské doly spokesperson Lukáš Kopecký told ČTK in May. An estimated 31 million tonnes of brown coal lie within the area covered by the current mining permit. In an area of around 5.5 square kilometres beyond the original territorial and environmental limit, reserves are estimated at 120 million tonnes of brown coal. The Bílina mines employed 1,347 people at the end of last year.