Radljevo Coal Mine

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Radljevo Coal Mine is an operating coal mine in Radjlevo, Central Serbia, Serbia.

Location

Table 1: Project-level location details

Mine Name	Location	Coordinates (WGS 84)
Radljevo Coal Mine	Radjlevo, Central Serbia, Serbia	44.469556, 20.202522 (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	Test Operation	202	–

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
13	–	–	Surface	Open Pit	–	100	#REF!*

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
350	–	–	Kolubara	Lignite	Thermal	–

Table 5: Ownership and parent company

Owner	Parent Company	Headquarters
Elektroprivreda Srbije Beograd AD	Government of the Republic of Serbia	Serbia

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

ROM or Saleable	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021	2022	2023
Saleable	–	–	–	–	–	–	0

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 Radjlevo coal mine is a surface mine near Radjlevo, Serbia. It is part of Kolubara Mine Complex. It is located at the far north-western tip of the Kolubara basin and bordering with Tamnava-West Coal Mine.

A map of the pits of the Kolubara mine complex.

The mine was officially opened in 2019 after many months of overburden removal, according to some reports. The mine has 350Mt of lignite reserves and its output was planned to be 13 million tonnes of lignite.

As of 2020, the mine planned to start extracting coal in 2022 after EPS investments of EUR 500 million into the project. In March 2021, it was reported that the works on of the site for the installation and maintenance of equipment for coal mine Radljevo and the bypass road around the facility will be completed by new year (by 2022) and exploitation of the coal will start in a very short time.

Radjlevo would supply coal to the new B3 unit of Kostolac power station, which in late 2022 was said to come online "as soon as" October 2023.

There was no coal production from the mine in 2020 and 2021, only some overburden volume reported. The same was true for 2022. A media source from April 2023 stated that coal production from the Radljevo mine is 1.5 years late, one system for the production of overburden was active at the mine and there were efforts to open the coal layer; the first quantities of coal from that mine were supposed to start being excavated in 2023. Delay in the procurement of the equipment was cited as one of the reasons. There was still no coal production reported for 2023, only 3 million tonnes of overburden.

The national Energy Strategy of Serbia up to 2040 (with projections up to 2050) adopted in the second half of 2024 indicated that Radjevo coal mine is in the stage of investment construction, with remaining investment estimated at EUR 300 million tonnes.

As of February 2025, it was unclear if the new mine started producing.

National Coal Plans

In July 2024, Serbia adopted the final National Energy and Climate Plan highlighting that with the exception of some units, generally coal power plant capacities will be maintained and will not be dismantled until 2045. The national Energy Strategy of Serbia up to 2040 (with projections up to 2050) indicated that coal production shall be gradually lowered. It is estimated that the demand for brown coal and dry lignite will be halved by 2040, in relation to the reference year 2021. Therefore, it is necessary to optimize and rationalize production in underground coal mining, close non-viable mines with almost depleted reserves and invest in viable and profitable mines. Remaining coal reserves should acquire strategic character and it is necessary to make investment in overburden excavation and slope stabilization.

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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.