Berbești Coal Mine is an

open-pit mining Open-pit mining, also known as open-cast or open-cut mining and in larger contexts mega-mining, is a surface mining technique that extracts rock (geology), rock or minerals from the earth. Open-pit mines are used when deposits of commercially ...

exploitation, one of the largest in

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

located in

Berbești Berbești is a town located in Vâlcea County, Romania, about south-west from the county seat, Râmnicu Vâlcea, in the historical region of Oltenia. It was granted town status by law in October 2003. As of the 2021 census, it has a population ...

Vâlcea County Vâlcea County (also spelt ''Vîlcea''; ) is a county (județ) that lies in south-central Romania. Located in the Historical regions of Romania, historical regions of Oltenia and Muntenia (which are separated by the Olt (river), Olt River), it i ...

. The legal entity managing the Berbești mine is the

National Company of Lignite Oltenia National Company of Lignite Oltenia () Târgu Jiu was set up as a commercial society by the Government of Romania in 1997. The main headquarters of the company is placed in Târgu Jiu, Gorj County. The company has its material base in Gorj, Vâl ...

which was set up in 1997. The exploitation has four open pits Seciuri, Olteț, Berbești-Vest, Panga that produced 2.5 million tonnes of

lignite Lignite (derived from Latin ''lignum'' meaning 'wood'), often referred to as brown coal, is a soft, brown, combustible sedimentary rock formed from naturally compressed peat. It has a carbon content around 25–35% and is considered the lowest ...

in 2008. The mine has around 1,800 workers and is endowed with 13

bucket-wheel excavator A bucket-wheel excavator (BWE) is a large heavy equipment machine used in surface mining. Their primary function is that of a continuous digging machine in large-scale open-pit mining operations, removing thousands of tons of overburden a day. Wh ...

s, seven spreaders, one mixed machine and five deposits spreader. The total proven recoverable reserves of the mine amount to 67 million tonnes of lignite.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Berbesti Coal Mine Coal mines in Romania Open-pit mines