Bilina Coal Mine

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Bilina Coal Mine (Lom Bílina) is an operating coal mine in Bílina, Duchocov, Teplice, Ústí nad Labem, Czech Republic.

Location

Table 1: Project-level location details

Mine Name	Location	Coordinates (WGS 84)
Bilina Coal Mine	Bílina, Duchocov, Teplice, Ústí nad Labem, Czech Republic	50.569659, 13.710986 (exact)

The map below shows the exact location of the coal mine:

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Project Details

Table 2: Project status

Status	Status Detail	Opening Year	Closing Year
Operating	–	1947	2033

Table 3: Operation details

Capacity (Mtpa)	Production (Mtpa)	Year of Production	Mine Type	Mining Method	Mine Size (km2)	Mine Depth (m)	Workforce Size
–	9.2	2022	Surface	Open Pit	44	200	1441

Table 4: Coal resources and destination

Total Reserves (Mt)	Year of Total Reserves Recorded	Total Resources (Mt)	Coalfield	Coal Type	Coal Grade	Primary Consumer/ Destination
155	–	–	Northern Bohemian	Lignite	Thermal	Ledvice power station; Melnik power station

Table 5: Ownership and parent company

Owner	Parent Company	Headquarters
Severočeské doly AS	CEZ AS	Czech Republic

Table 6: Historical production (unit: million tonnes per annum)

Note: The asterisk (*) indicates that the value is an estimated figure based on various factors, including the company's forecasted or reported monthly or quarterly production data, etc.

ROM or Saleable	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021	2022	2023
Saleable	9.959	9.561	8.8	7.5	8.1	9.2	8.3

Expansion/Extension

Table 6: Project status

* Added capacity of a coal mine refers to the enhancement in the mine's production capabilities beyond its initial production capacity.

Status	Status Detail	Project Type	Project Phase	Added Capacity (Mtpa)*	Start Year
Cancelled	Pre-Permit	Expansion	–	0.1	–

Note: The above section was automatically generated and is based on data from the Global Coal Mine Tracker April 2024 release and the September and December supplements.

Background

The Bilina coal mine is a SURFACE mine in the Teplice District in the Ústí nad Labem Region of the Czech Republic. The Bílina mine is owned and operated by Severočeské doly A.S which in turn is owned by ČEZ Group.

Severočeské doly is the largest Czech brown coal mining company. It also owns and operates Nastup Tusimice coal mine. In 2021, Severočeské doly sold a total of 15.9 million tonnes of coal 2021, 11.7 of which was to the power plants within CEZ Group. Since a majority of its production is intended for consumption within ČEZ Group, Severočeské doly is one of the smaller players in the free coal market. In 2022, the company sold 17.8 million tonnes of coal, the reason for the significant increase was mainly due to the energy crisis in Europe and the need to secure the electricity missing from the gas supply.

Geological conditions at Bílina Mine are complex. A seam up to 42m in thickness of high‑quality low‑sulfur coal is found at varying depths, divided by rock interburden and covered with layers of overlying claystone and sandstone. Therefore, very much depends on the organization of work associated with overburden stripping and actual coal mining. Overburden thickness reaches up to 200m and is stripped by excavators. All overburden is deposited on the internal dump, which is gradually reclaimed after continual partial completion of mining operations. Bílina Mine stands out not only in terms of stripped overburden volumes (more than 50 mil. m3 per year), but also it being the absolute deepest of mining sites.

All extracted coal volumes are destined for the 8-km journey by long‑distance belt conveyors to the coal preparation plant Ledvice. Coal preparation is an integral part of the mine's activities. Bílina raw coal, characterized by a high calorific value (in average from 9.5 to 20.0 MJ/kg), low sulphur, bitumen and other pollutants is transformed into final coal products. Coal is crushed, graded and separated there at Ledvice processing plant.

The mine supplies to Ledvice power station, Melnik power station, and large power plants.

In 2015, the government revoked the mining limit for the Bílina mine, but extended the mining licence to 2055. On the basis of an environmental impact assessment, in 2019 the Ministry of the Environment confirmed the extension of the Bílina mining limit from 2030 to 2055, but set conditions to limit the impact on the local population.

In 2024, Severočeské doly A.S supplied to the market 14 million tonnes of coal from the Bilina mine and the Nástup-Tušimice Coal Mine, a decrease compared to 15.64 million tonnes in 2023.

Proposed Extension Cancelled

In 2017, it was announced that the coal mine will expand. According to Radio Prague International, in January 2017:

'Following the unique lifting of limits on brown coal mining by the government in Bílina, North Bohemia, the Bílina Mine has formally set the ball rolling to be allowed to mine more than 150 million tonnes of coal still in the ground."

The mine has proposed extracting 150 million tonnes from 2019 to 2035, approximately 9.3 million tonnes per annum. Citizen groups opposed the expansion.

The government elected in October 2021 called for a phase out of coal by 2033, encouraging Europe Beyond Coal to call for abandoning the Bilina mine expansion.

However, the energy crisis of 2022 has triggered debates in the Czech Republic about the possible extension and expansion of coal mining. According to EU Parliamentary questions document from January 2023, Severočeské doly was preparing an application to extend mining at the Bílina mine from 2030 to 2035, with the possibility of extending mining to 2050 in a second phase. Both of these plans contradict the Czech Government’s declaration of an end to coal mining and burning by 2033.

In June 2023, Greenpeace activists from across Europe occupied equipment at the Bilina coal mine to protest against plans to extend the life of the mine until at least 2035. The Czech government’s District Mining Office approved the Bílina mine extension permit in March 2023. However Greenpeace Czechia appealed against it, meaning the approval was not legally binding. According to Greenpeace, if the extension is approved, it will mean an extra 50 million tonnes of coal will be extracted from Bílina, which, according to the Czech Ministry of the Environment’s assessment, will cause the release of an estimated 11.5 million tonnes of CO2 per year on average. That means, in just five years, Bílina will produce roughly half of the yearly CO2 emission that Czechia produced in 2020 alone. The Czech government has the power to stop the mine from being enlarged by cancelling the mine’s Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) permit, or by issuing an official statement against the prolongation of the mining which would be legally binding for mining authority.

Greenpeace later attended the company's General Meeting in June 2023, minutes of which (in Czech) are available. Greenpeace highlighted that besides the plan to continue mining until 2035, the company also considers mining in Bilina well into the 2050s. There was no mine reclamation plan after 2035.

A bond prospectus of ČEZ dated May 2024 stated that mining operations at Bilina are permitted until 2035.As of June 2024, Severočeské Doly was no longer seeking to expand and extend mining at the Bílina coal mine beyond the horizon of 2033. This follows from a statement they sent to the Czech Mining Authority in April this year and notified to the Ministry of the Environment and Minister.

Greenpeace reported that in April 2024, Severočeské Doly sent a statement to the Czech Mining Authority that it agrees to end mining in Bílina by 2033. In June 2024, ČEZ referred to ending coal mining in Bilina even earlier around 2030. The company's press spokesman explained ČEZ sees this step as "likely, although not definitively decided, depending on the situation on the energy markets". In late 2024 the Czech government approved an updated national energy plan that states that all coal mining is to be ceased by 2033.

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Additional data

To access additional data, including an interactive map of world coal mines, a downloadable dataset, and summary data, please visit the Global Coal Mine Tracker on the Global Energy Monitor website.