Abstract
By the end of the 1950s, the German coal mining industry produced 150 million tons of hard coal per year in 170 collieries with 600,000 employees. At that time, 70% of the primary energy demand of the Federal Republic of Germany was covered by domestic coal. Since the advance of oil, later of natural gas, in the world energy market and with the growth of world coal trade, domestic coal stood under a long-term restructuring pressure. This decision required a new strategy for the coal mining industry. Now German coal mining will be strictly finalized and will be prepared for the post-mining era. Within a sustainability strategy the long-term impacts of mining activities before and after the mine closures concerning the environmental, economic and social dimensions will be analyzed systematically and forward-looking.
Highlights
Principally, mining raw materials is a finite business that reaches its limits once the deposits mined are depleted or the resources can no longer be mined in an economically profitable way
The impact of winning raw materials by mining is potentially an infinite one – at least if you measure it at a human time scale because mining always means to interfere with geological and ecological structures that cannot be reversed to their original condition
In Germany, industrial underground mining of hard coal began in the early 19th century
Summary
Mining raw materials is a finite business that reaches its limits once the deposits mined are depleted or the resources can no longer be mined in an economically profitable way. The exploration phase, in which the deposit is investigated to determine its technical and economic profitability. The period of these undertakings is relatively short and can lead to the launch of mining operations. The operational lifespans of German hard coal mines for example reached up to 120 years. This point of time, may be brought forward if the economic conditions (production cost or market price) deteriorate. Mining may be resumed even after a longer period of downtime if those conditions become favorable once more (examples are silver mining in Germany or rare earths mining in the USA)
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