Hambach Coal Mine

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Hambach Coal Mine is an operating coal mine in Niederzier and Elsdorf, North-Rhine Westphalia, Germany.

Location

Table 1: Project-level location details

Mine Name	Location	Coordinates (WGS 84)
Hambach Coal Mine	Niederzier and Elsdorf, North-Rhine Westphalia, Germany	50.891826, 6.5734464 (exact)

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

Loading map...

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Project Details

Table 2: Project status

Status	Status Detail	Opening Year	Closing Year
Operating	–	1978	2029 (planned)

Table 3: Operation details

Capacity (Mtpa)	Production (Mtpa)	Year of Production	Mine Type	Mining Method	Mine Size (km2)	Mine Depth (m)	Workforce Size
–	23.61	2021	Surface	Open Pit	85	400	1300

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
1350	–	–	Ruhr	Lignite	Thermal	–

Table 5: Ownership and parent company

Owner	Parent Company	Headquarters
RWE Power AG	RWE AG [100.0%]	Germany

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	40*	38	28	20	23	24*	18*

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

Background

The Hambach mine is a surface coal mine, operated by RWE Power in Niederzier and Elsdorf, North Rhine–Westphalia, Germany. With an area of 4,380 hectares (as of 2022) and an approved maximum size of 8,500 hectares, Hambach mine is the largest open pit mine in Germany. An estimated 1,350 million tonnes of lignite are still available for mining. RWE has extraction rights for the mine until 2040.

The mine sits on the site of the 12,000-year-old Hambach Forest, which was purchased by RWE in 1978 and largely logged and cleared for mining. Only some 550 hectares (2.1 square miles) of the forest's original 4,000 hectares have been spared.

• Owner: RWE Power AG
• Parent Company: RWE AG
• Location: Niederzier and Elsdorf, North Rhine–Westphalia, Germany
• GPS Coordinates: 50.891826,6.5734464 (exact)
• Mine Status: Operating
• Production: 20.42 Mt (2020), 23.61Mt (2021)
• Total Resource:
• Total Reserves: 1350 million tonnes
• Coal Type: lignite
• Mine Size: 4,380 hectares
• Mine Type: Surface
• Start Year: 1978
• Source of Financing:
• Number of Employees: 4600

Production

Information on the mine's production is not transparent. RWE Power's website refers to production of up to 23Mtpa (as of the end of 2021), but no historical production levels are found in the company's reports. A German statistics report stated that in 2021, the Hambach mine produced 23.61Mt, up from 20.42 in 2020. Global Data referred to production of 30.2 Mt in 2021, however the statistics report is a more reliable source.

No 2022 production figure was available, as of February 2024. However, total lignite production from the Rheinland region (which includes the Hambach mine, Garzweiler coal mine and the Inden coal mine) increased from 62.6 Mt in 2021 to 65.29 Mt in 2022.

Expansion

Due to the fact that Hambach mine operates on a fraction of its approved coalfield lands, it can effectively expand inside of its own lease without additional approvals. RWE had planned to clear half of the remaining area of the Hambach Forest between 2018 and 2020 to expand its operation. However due to public opposition and Germany's subsequent commitment to exiting coal by 2038, this particular mine extension project has been shelved.

Coal Phase Out

In 2029, coal extraction in the Hambach opencast mine will end. Several major regional planning, mining law and water management approval procedures are currently underway, according to RWE's website (accessed February 2024).They will determine how the landscape, characterised by a large lake and forest, will look like.

Opposition

Since 2012, the protection of Hambach Forest has been a political issue for environmentalists. An area within the forest has been intermittently occupied by those opposing the clearance for lignite extraction. The first occupation lasted from mid April to mid November 2012. A second occupation started on September 1, 2013 and lasted until March 27, 2014, followed by a third occupation from April to October 2014. The fourth occupation period started in 2015 and lasted until 2018. It involved a settlement with around two dozen tree houses and numerous road barricades. The barricades were erected to prevent mining company and police vehicles from entering.

The plan to expand the mine and cut down remaining forest land was met with massive protests in autumn 2018 and was temporarily stopped in October 2018 by the supreme administrative court of North Rhine–Westphalia (Oberverwaltungsgericht für das Land Nordrhein-Westfalen). On October 5, 2018, the Higher Administrative Court (German: Oberverwaltungsgericht (de)) of Münster ruled that the clearance of Hambach Forest by RWE had to stop immediately until evidence brought by BUND (a German NGO) concerning threats to the local Bechstein's bat population could be evaluated.

In early 2020, federal authorities agreed that the Hambach Forest would not be developed, and RWE said it would halt logging. By August 2020, Germany committed to completely phasing out coal power by 2038, which further provided protections for the remaining forest land. Today, the ancient Hambach Forest remains a symbol of the environmental movement in Germany.

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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.