Czechia's last hard coal mine closes today, final cart to emerge on Wednesday

Today marks the end of a 250-year chapter in hard coal mining in Czechia. The country’s last hard coal mine, the ČSM Mine in the Karviná region, is closing. As of this date, 750 employees are leaving OKD, the country’s sole hard coal producer, with another 150 departing on 28 February. OKD will bring up the symbolic final cart on 4 February.

"On the night shift on Saturday, 31 January 2026, the machines will stop at the final longwall face, 463 204/1. The symbolic final cart of coal will emerge on 4 February from a depth of 1,300 metres, ending hard coal mining in Czechia after almost 250 years," OKD spokeswoman Barbora Černá Dvořáková said earlier.

OKD is the sole producer of hard coal in Czechia. The state owns the company through Prisko. OKD currently employs 2,300 people, with more than 1,700 permanent employees. Mining at OKD has been scaled back for decades because it was not profitable. The technical closure of the ČSM Mine will take around three years, and OKD will retain about 600 workers for the process. At the same time, it is already developing a business plan for its operations through to 2050, including capturing and using mine gas.

The ČSM Mine was OKD’s youngest mine. Its first cart emerged on 19 December 1968 from a depth of 570 metres at the 230 311 longwall face, where the team led by chief foreman Antonín Niedoba began mining. Over its 57-year existence, the ČSM Mine produced an average of 2.18 million tonnes of coal per year. By the end of last year, nearly 124.3 million tonnes of coal had been extracted from it in total.