Enefit Kaevandused (former names: Eesti Põlevkivi and Eesti Energia Kaevandused) was a mining company located in
Jõhvi,
Estonia. It was a subsidiary of
Eesti Energia, an Estonian state-owned energy company. The core activity of Enefit Kaevandused was
oil-shale
Oil shale is an organic-rich fine-grained sedimentary rock containing kerogen (a solid mixture of organic chemical compounds) from which liquid hydrocarbons can be produced. In addition to kerogen, general composition of oil shales constitute ...
mining. The produced oil shale was mainly used for
shale oil production and to fuel
oil shale-fired power stations in the north–east of Estonia.
[
] As of 2009, the company has 3,150 employees.
[
] The last
chief executive officer was Andres Vainola.
[
] The company produced more than 17 million tons of oil shale in 2013.
History
Enefit Kaevandused were established in June 1945 as Eesti Põlevkivi, also known by its name in Russian ''Estonslanets''. It was created by merging Kukruse and Käva II mines. In 1946, it took over Viivikonna mine.
[
]
New mines were opened in
Ahtme
Ahtme is a settlement in Ida-Viru County, Estonia with a population of around 18,000. It is administered as the second major district of the town of Kohtla-Järve, despite being separate from the central district of Järve and geographically ...
(1948), Jõhvi (No. 2, 1949),
Sompa (1949),
Tammiku (1951), and in the area between Käva and Sompa (No. 4, 1953).
The Ubja mine was given to Eesti Põlevkivi in 1957, but it was closed in 1959.
[ Saarnak ''et al''. (2014), p. 66] After construction of
large oil shale-fired power stations in Narva, demand for oil shale increased and consequently Eesti Põlevkivi opened the underground mines Viru (1965) and Estonia (1972) along with the open-pit mines Sirgala (1963), Narva (1970) and Oktoobri (1974; later named Aidu).
[ Correspondingly, several exhausted smaller mines like Kukruse (1967), Käva (1972), No. 2 (1973), No. 4 (1975), and Kiviõli (1987) were closed.][ The Estonia Mine became the largest oil shale mine in the world.][
] At the end of 1988, a fire broke out in the Estonia Mine. The largest underground fire in Estonia, it continued for 81 days and caused serious pollution of ground and surface waters.[
]
In 1998, Eesti Põlevkivi and Dynamit Nobel
Dynamit Nobel AG is a German chemical and weapons company whose headquarters is in Troisdorf, Germany. It was founded in 1865 by Alfred Nobel.
Creation
After the death of his younger brother Emil in an 1864 nitroglycerin explosion at the famil ...
opened an explosives manufacturing plant in Estonia.[
] After Dynamit Nobel sold its explosives business to Orica, the later became the main shareholder in the plant.
Due to a decrease in demand, the Tammiku and Sompa mines closed in 1999 and those at Kohtla and Ahtme closed in 2001.[
] In 2000, the open-pit mines at Viivikonna, Sirgala and Narva were merged into the single Narva open-pit mine.[
] The exhausted Aidu open-pit mine was closed in 2012, followed a year later by the Viru underground mine.[
][
]
In 1999, Government of Estonia handed 51% of shares of Eesti Põlevkivi to Narva Elektrijaamad.[
] In 2003, Government transferred remained 49% stake in Eesti Põlevkivi to Eesti Energia. Also Narva Elektrijaamad-owned 51% stake was transferred to Eesti Energia and Eesti Põlevkivi became a fully owned subsidiary of Eesti Energia.[
]
Starting from 2021, Enefit Kaevandused was merged with another subsidiary of Eesti Energia, Enefit Energiatootmine, to create an integrated oil shale company.[
]
Gallery
File:Dragline excavator in the Baltic Oil Shale Basin.jpg, Dragline excavator in Narva mine.
File:TEM18-192 PR near Ahtme.jpg, Company's train transporting oil-shale near Ahtme
Ahtme is a settlement in Ida-Viru County, Estonia with a population of around 18,000. It is administered as the second major district of the town of Kohtla-Järve, despite being separate from the central district of Järve and geographically ...
.
File:Aidu mine.jpg, Unrehabilitated land in older part of Aidu mine.
See also
* Energy in Estonia
References
Bibliography
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Enefit Kaevandused
Oil shale companies of Estonia
Ida-Viru County
1945 establishments in Estonia
Non-renewable resource companies established in 1945
Mining companies of the Soviet Union
Defunct companies of Estonia