Husnicioara Coal Mine

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Husnicioara Coal Mine is an operating coal mine in Motru, Rovinari, Oltenia, Romania.

Location

Table 1: Project-level location details

Mine Name	Location	Coordinates (WGS 84)
Husnicioara Coal Mine	Motru, Rovinari, Oltenia, Romania	44.666988, 22.756389 (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	–	1980	2024

Table 3: Operation details

Note: The asterisk (*) signifies that the value is a GEM estimated figure.

Capacity (Mtpa)	Production (Mtpa)	Year of Production	Mine Type	Mining Method	Mine Size (km2)	Mine Depth (m)	Workforce Size
–	0.437	–	Surface	Open Pit	–	50*	421

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
–	–	–	Oltenia	Lignite	Thermal	–

Table 5: Ownership and parent company

Owner	Parent Company	Headquarters
Complexul Energetic Oltenia SA	Ministry of Energy (Romania) [77.2%]; Fondul Proprietatea SA [21.6%]; other unknown/mixed entity types [1.3%]	Romania

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 Oltenia Energy Complex is a network of coal mines and power plants, operated by Complexul Energetic Oltenia S.A., in Gorj, Vâlce, and Mehedinţi, Romania.

The complex produces 99% of the country's lignite - 18.2 million tonnes in 2022.

The company operates ten pits. The complex has closed several other pits over the years. The Oltenia Energy Complex was established in 2012 by merging Societatea Naţionala a Lignitului Oltenia with Energy Complexes Turceni, Rovinari and Craiova. The company has its material base in Gorj, Vâlcea and Mehedinţi counties with total reserves of 2 billion tonnes of coal.

Approximately 85% of the total production comes from Gorj County, especially in the north of the county where coal is extracted near Motru and Rovinari.

The main beneficiaries of the coal extracted here are the large Romanian power complexes Rovinari power station, Turceni power station and Craiova II power station.

Between 2017 and 2021, Oltenia Energy Complex had an average annual production of approximately 18.5 million tonnes of lignite from the ten mines it operates. In 2022, production of the complex reached 18.2 million tonnes.

A map of the operating and former mines in the Oltenia Energy Complex.

In 2012, almost one hundred permits were issued to Oltenia Energy Complex with regard to several mines, allowing the company to cut down hectares of forest to make way for coal mines. The permits were issued illegally, however, as Bankwatch Romania proved in court over the past six years. After many lawsuits and complaints to the relevant authorities, the Romanian Ministry for Environment informed criminal investigation bodies about this situation. The slow evolution of the lawsuits allowed some areas to be deforested before the trials were finished, as the decisions were not suspended. Someone may be held accountable for the illegal permits that led to the destruction of hundreds of hectares of forest. Six years after the local authorities failed to protect the environment, a criminal investigation began. This law was changed in the meantime, however, enabling large-scale deforestation for projects of ‘public interest’ by removing the mandatory government decisions.

December 2015: Deforestation decisions for Roșia mine are definitively annulled;

March 2017: Deforestation decisions for Jilt Sud mine definitively annulled;

December 2017: The decisions for Jilț Nord are annulled by a court;

March 2018: Deforestation decisions for Rovinari basin are definitively annulled;

October 2019: Court blocks Rosia mine expansion

Coal Retirement

A Restructuring Plan for the Oltenia Energy Complex was approved by the European Commission in January 2022 which anticipated the phased closure of Husnicioara, Peșteana and Lupoaia quarries and the transition to conservation of Tismana and Jilt Sud from 2026.

In December 2022, coal units at Rovinari and Turceni power plants, each with an installed capacity of 330 MW, as well as their related mining operations were said to continue to function for a further nine months, until October 2023.

In October 2023, Romania's Minister of Energy agreed to a request from unions to seek support from the European Commission for a two-year extension of operations at Rovinari power station and Turceni power station. The extension would allow the continued operation of "mine in Gorj" (presumably, several mines in the Gorj region).

1) Husnicioara

The mine was planned for closure by the end of 2022, according to Euracoal report. However as per media reports from November 2022, it appeared that the mine will continue to be operational until the end of 2023, with greening works to be performed in mid-2024. As of January 2023, the mine was still operating with miners reported to have to walk to their working stations for 4-5km. In December 2023 and February 2024, medias sources reported that the mine was still working on a limited schedule.

2) Lupoaia

Lupoaia was planned for closure by the end of 2022, according to Euracoal report. However as per media reports from November 2022, it appeared that it will continue to be operational until the end of 2023, with greening works to be performed in mid-2024.

3) Pesteana

The mine was planned for closure, according to government announcements in 2022, together with Husnicioara and Lupoaia. Euracoal report from January 2024 did not specifically mention this coal mine but referred to Roşia-Peșteana coal mine planned for closure by the end of 2030. (the surface mines are located 10km away from each other).

Additional media sources from September 2021 stated that the last works at Pesteana were scheduled by the end of 2021 and the mine was planned for closure in January 2022. Pesteana Sud was closed earlier in 2015 and on its site a huge lake was formed. However, media sources from late 2023 suggest that the mine was still operational.

4) Jilt Sud and Jilt Nord

Jilt is one of the largest open-pit mines in Romania. The mine has two open pits, Jilț Sud, Jilț Nord, and around 2,400 workers. In 2015, the residents of Runcurel, a village in Romania’s south west, were given 30 days to vacate their homes in exchange for 1 euro per square meter of land to accommodate the Jilt Nord mine expansion. Backed by a Romanian government executive decree dated Dec. 9, the mine was declared a project of national importance and earlier attempts to reach a deal with villagers were abandoned. The villagers say no compensation was offered for homes, orchards, crops or other assets linked to the land and lodged court action against the company.

On March 18, 2016 villagers from Runcurel, with the help of Bankwatch and Greenpeace, filed a case to sue the government in a bid to have the decision to reclaim their land revoked. The court documents stated that the environmental permit issued for the mine’s expansion is linked to a formal strategy to relocate the villagers to nearby Telesti at OEC expense, which remains unimplemented. Additionally, the document stated that the government’s executive decree contradicts Romania’s national energy strategy which seeks to reduce energy production from coal and discourages new energy projects with significant socio-cultural impacts.

As stated above, the deforestation permits allowing the Jilt Sud expansion were annulled in 2017. However, in 2019, the government approved the final procedure for extending the perimeter of the Jilț Sud mine, which already opened that year.

The mine had an estimated production of 3.9Mt in 2020.

A serious accident occurred at Jilt Sud in January 2023, when a car full of workers overturned. Three people died and 13 others were injured.

Jilt Sud and Jilt Nord were both planned for closure by the end of 2023, according to Euracoal report. A media source from October 2023 stated that closure activities at Jilt Sud have begun and from January 2024, the mine will be closed. There was a procedure underway for the selection of design services for the development of technological plans for the cessation of activity. As there was no official confirmation of the closure of Jilt Sud, it was assumed operational, as of February 2024.

The Ministry of Energy wanted to postpone the closure of several other mines, including for Jilt Nord to close only in 2027, according to the media source source from October 2023.

5) Pinoasa and Timiseni-Pinoasa Expansion

Eurocal report referred to the planned for closure of the Pinoasa coal mine by the end of 2030. The same timeline was mentioned in a media report from October 2023.

In January 2023, the Romanian government adopted the decision to cut down a 106-hectare forest without compensation to expand the Timiseni-Pinoasa lignite mine, according to Bankwatch report. This would increase output of the mine up to 8 million tonnes per year, which is almost half of the total 2021 production of Oltenia. The decision runs counter the decarbonization process approved by the government earlier. The project has been in the works since 2019, according to another report, and the removal of the 106-hectare forecst is the last important step before moving on to mining.

6) Tismana

Tismana is planned for closure by the end of 2024, according to Euracoal report. The mine produced 3.56 million tonnes in 2021.

However, local news reports from January 2024 suggested that the government made a decision to amend annex no. 2 to Government Decision no. 1120/2020 regarding the approval of the site, and commenced expropriation procedures of all privately owned buildings with a view to maintain capacity of Tismana 1 at 5 Mtpa.

7) Rosia

The company wanted to expand Rosia's 1,450-hectare coal mine by a further 280 hectares, 235 of which are currently covered by forest which would have had to be cut down. The NGO BankWatch Romania challenged the expansion in court because the expansion would make it harder for the country to meet its coal phaseout targets. During the two-year legal battle, Bankwatch argued that the expansion had initially been granted without properly consulting locals and that the environmental impact of such an expansion had not been assessed. BankWatch added that the expanded mine would pollute the area, including underground water, and that endangered species would also be negatively impacted. The court blocked the expansion.

In 2021, Rosia produced 3.63 million tonnes.

Euracoal report from January 2024 referred to the planned closure of Rosia-Pesteana coal mine by the end of 2030.

8) Rosiuta

In 2019, Rosiuta mine in Motru, in Gorj county was transferred to Oltenia's ownership as well. The mine was first opened in 1983 and has a capacity of about 3 million tons per year. In 2019, the government approved the final procedure for reopening Roșiuța mine. The mine employed 14,000 employees, but in October 2019, the Bucharest Court of Appeal cancelled the environmental authorization of the Roșiuța mine.

The Rosiuta mine is planned for closure by December 2025, according to Euracoal report. However, a media report from October 2023 suggested that the Ministry of Energy wanted to delay this to 2029.

Previous Proposed Expansion

Prior to 2020, Oltenia Energy Complex had an expansion plan, in a joint venture with China Huadian Corporation, to expand production in the Rovinari coal basin by 4.5 million tonnes per annum. The country's National Energy and Climate Plan (NECP) through 2030 – released on January 31, 2020 – removed plans for new coal projects that appeared in earlier drafts, including the 600 MW unit at Rovinari. In November 2020, Romania’s Minister of Economy and Energy, Virgil Daniel Popescu, confirmed to Euronews that no more coal plants will be built in the country, confirming that the proposed 600 MW expansion project has been cancelled.

Mine Complex Details

• Owner: Complexul Energetic Oltenia S.A.
• Parent Company: Ministry of Energy (Romania) [77.2%]; Fondul Proprietatea SA [21.6%];
• Location: Gorj, Mehedinţi and Vâlcea counties, Romania
• GPS coordinates: 44.911575,23.134403 (exact)
• Mine status: Operating
• Start year:
• Mineable reserves: 280 million tonnes (The company states: "the Oltenia mining basin can supply the necessary coal for the next 40 years")
• Total reserves:1.5 billion tonnes
• Coal type: Lignite
• Mine size: 280 square km
• Mine type: Surface
• Production: 22.5 Mt (2017), 18.2 Mt (2022)
• Equipment: Open pit mining
• Mine depth: 50-180 m
• Number of employees: 7779

Expansion Plans

• Owner: Complexul Energetic Oltenia S.A.,China Huadian Corporation
• Location: Rovinari, Gorj, Romania
• Mine status: Cancelled
• Production: 4.5 million tonnes per annum
• Number of employees: 250

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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.