Hard coal mining at ČSM mine and across Czechia to end on 31 January 2026

Hard coal mining at the ČSM Mine in Stonava, in the Karviná region, will end on 31 January next year. On the same date, 750 employees will leave mining company OKD, followed by another 150 on 28 February. OKD spokesperson Barbora Černá Dvořáková told ČTK today. The ČSM Mine is the country’s last operating hard coal mine, meaning hard coal mining will end across all of Czechia.

Miners still need to extract approximately 200,000 tonnes of coal from the last three longwall panels, or extraction areas. "This will be achieved at the end of January, when mining at the ČSM Mine will cease. As of 31 January 2026, 750 employees will leave, followed by another 150 as of 28 February after operations at the coal preparation plant end," Černá said. OKD will pay departing employees more than 500 million koruna in total in severance pay; they will receive up to eleven times their average monthly earnings.

The technical closure of the ČSM Mine will take approximately three years, and OKD will retain around 600 employees for this work. At the same time, it is already launching a business plan for its operations through to 2050, including capturing and using mine gas. Last month, the company signed a contract worth more than 20 million koruna for the supply of a cogeneration unit that will generate electricity and heat from mine gas. It also plans to blend and sell coal mixtures: OKD will buy coal and use the infrastructure and know-how of its coal preparation plant to produce energy blends tailored to customers.

"For approximately three years, we have stated that we would end mining at the last operating hard coal mine, the ČSM Mine, in the first quarter of 2026, and from today’s perspective we set that deadline correctly. From economic, staffing and legislative perspectives, any further extension of mining would no longer make sense. Thus, after nearly 250 years, we will bring the last coal wagon out of the mine at the beginning of February next year," said OKD CEO Roman Sikora.

ANO movement chairman and prospective prime minister Andrej Babiš told ČTK that he was not familiar with the company’s current situation and that responsibility lay with outgoing Finance Minister Zbyněk Stanjura (ODS). Babiš said he would be able to address the matter after his government receives information on it. He said he had saved the company during his previous term in office.

Over the first ten months of the year, OKD extracted 985,000 tonnes of coal. "This means that 160,000 tonnes remain to be extracted to meet the annual plan of 1.145 million tonnes," the spokesperson said. In December, miners will extract two longwall panels, and in January they will extract approximately 40,000 tonnes of coal from the final panel.

"The number of customers interested in hard coal is declining as they switch to other energy sources. Our results are affected by falling global coal prices and the weakening dollar, which significantly benefits our competitors, coal importers. However, we expect that by maintaining stable operations and making rigorous savings across all cost items, we will be able to end mining operations in the black," Sikora said.

In addition to approximately 900 OKD employees for whom the company will no longer have work, most workers employed by mine construction contractors will also end their activities in the first quarter of next year. "During the initial phase, we will need around 600 qualified employees with specific expertise for the closure work, which was the main criterion in determining redundant workers," said OKD HR director Radomír Štix.

Following the end of tunnel driving and equipping longwall panels with extraction technology, 400 permanent employees and 260 contractor workers have already left OKD this year. "The company currently employs 2,300 people, of whom 1,750 are permanent employees. The average age of permanent employees is 49. The average monthly gross wage in 2024 was 56,985 koruna," Černá said.

OKD is the sole producer of hard coal in Czechia. In previous years, the company ended mining at most of its mines because it had long been unprofitable. The state owns the business through company Prisko.