Czech coal output rose by two percent year on year to 25,6 million tonnes last year

Coal output in the Czech Republic rose last year despite the planned future phase-out. Around 25,6 million tonnes of lignite and hard coal were extracted from open-pit and underground mines, approximately two percent more year on year. Production was traditionally driven by lignite mining, which accounted for 95 percent of the extracted mineral. This follows from statistics from the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MPO). Only lignite is now mined in the Czech Republic, after extraction at the last hard coal mine, ČSM in the Karviná region, ended definitively at the beginning of February.

Last year, 24,3 million tonnes of lignite were extracted, 2,5 percent more year on year. Output grew primarily in the first half of the year. Most of it was used as industrial coal. Key lignite deposits in Czechia are located in the foothills of the Ore Mountains, around Most, Chomutov and Teplice. The most significant sites are the ČSA and Bílina open-pit mines. Lignite mining also continues in the Sokolov region.

At the country’s last hard coal mine, ČSM in Stonava in the Karviná region, miners extracted 1,28 million tonnes of hard coal last year. This was around five percent less year on year. The majority, specifically 781.000 tonnes, was coking coal, which can be used to produce coke and subsequently, for example, pig iron. Coal for energy purposes declined significantly.

Along with the decline in hard coal extraction, coke production also fell. Last year it totalled around 1,36 million tonnes, approximately 1,5 percent less than the year before last.

Hard coal mining in Czechia definitively came to an end in recent weeks after more than 200 years. The symbolic final wagon of coal emerged from a depth of 1300 metres at the ČSM mine on 4 February. Even after mining has ended, billions of tonnes of unextracted hard coal remain in Silesia, but according to experts, extracting it would be exceptionally challenging both technically and economically.

Only lignite is now mined in the Czech Republic, extracted from several open-pit mines in north-western Bohemia. This mining, too, is expected to end within a few years.

Last year therefore interrupted the long-term decline in domestic coal production. Output had fallen sharply in previous years; for example, miners recorded a 17 percent year-on-year decline in production the year before last. Mining has been declining over the long term in connection with the state’s plan to move away from burning coal in power plants and heating plants by 2033. Energy companies are counting on an even earlier date.