The Czechoslovak Army Mine (, shortened to Lom ČSA) is an

opencast 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 or minerals from the earth. Open-pit mines are used when deposits of commercially useful ore or ro ...

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 ...

mine located in the

Most Basin The Most Basin (also known as North Bohemian Basin; , ) is a structural basin and geomorphological mesoregion of the Czech Republic. It is named after the city of Most. It forms the southwestern and central parts of the Ústí nad Labem Region. ...

of the

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, also known as Czechia, and historically known as Bohemia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the south ...

, located between the city of

Most Most or Möst may refer to: Places * Most, Kardzhali Province, a village in Bulgaria * Most (city), a city in the Czech Republic ** Most District, a district surrounding the city ** Most Basin, a lowland named after the city ** Autodrom Most, moto ...

and the town of

Litvínov Litvínov (; ) is a town in Most District in the Ústí nad Labem Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 22,000 inhabitants. It is known as an industrial centre. Administrative division Litvínov consists of 12 municipal parts (in brackets po ...

. Since 2008, mining operations have been run by Litvínovská uhelná a.s. after its owner, the Czech Coal Group, broke up the former mining company, Mostecká uhelná a.s., into two operations (the other company is Vršanská uhelná a.s.).

History

The ČSA mine is located on the site of what was once

Lake Komořany Lake Komořany () is a former lake in the Czech Republic that is now non-existent as it has dried up. It had an area of approximately . It was located in the Ore Mountains The Ore Mountains (, or ; ) lie along the Czech–German border, sepa ...

, created approximately 15,000 years ago at the end of the Pleistocene era as a shallow flow-through lake fed and drained by the river Bílina.Smrž, Z., 2011. The History of Lake Komořan

(Czech) Originally occupying an area of nearly 5,600 ha at the foot of the

Ore Mountains The Ore Mountains (, or ; ) lie along the Czech–German border, separating the historical regions of Bohemia in the Czech Republic and Saxony in Germany. The highest peaks are the Klínovec in the Czech Republic (German: ''Keilberg'') at ab ...

and under the gaze of Jezeří Castle, it was the biggest lake in the

Kingdom of Bohemia The Kingdom of Bohemia (), sometimes referenced in English literature as the Czech Kingdom, was a History of the Czech lands in the High Middle Ages, medieval and History of the Czech lands, early modern monarchy in Central Europe. It was the pr ...

. Due to the requirements of the mining industry, and partially for health reasons, Lake Komořany was artificially drained at the behest of Prince Ferdinand Lobkowitz from 1831. A part of the Lake remained extant until the 20th century, but all remains have long since disappeared as a result of encroaching mining operations. Today's ČSA mine first begin coal extraction activities in 1901 under the name Hedvika, the volume of coal mined increasing from 74,000 tonnes in 1902 to 344,000 tonnes in 1910. The mine supplied coal to the Ervěnická power station which powered the city of Prague and its surrounds from 1926. Hedvika was one of the first coal mines in Czechoslovakia to begin production again after the Second World War and was renamed the President Roosevelt Mine in 1947. It was transformed from a small-scale mine to a large-scale operation in the 1950s due to a general lack of coal nationwide. It was renamed the Czechoslovak Army Mine in 1958, and in 1962 it was incorporated into the V. I. Lenin Mines national enterprise. It finally became part of the 100% state-owned post-revolution Mostecká uhelná společnost ost Mining Companyin 1993 before that company was privatised in 1999.Kounovský, P., & Jarošová, I. "Remediation and recultivation of the ČSA min

(in Czech) CSA2

Mining limits

The ČSA mine is subject to the

brown coal mining limits in North Bohemia Territorial limits to the mining of brown coal in North Bohemia are legally binding according to Resolution No. 444 passed in 1991 by the government of the Czech Republic, on the basis of a proposal tabled by the then Minister for the Environment, ...

imposed by the Czech government in 1991. Without the limits, the mine would continue operations in various stages for well over another one hundred years until approximately 2133. In the next stage of mining, 287 million tonnes of coalChytka, L., & Valasek, V., 2007. All For Power online journal. “The Past and Present of Mining Brown Coal in Northern Bohemia. And the Future…?�

(English) would be extracted from the area beneath the towns of Černice and

Horní Jiřetín Horní Jiřetín (; ) is a town in Most District in the Ústí nad Labem Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 2,200 inhabitants. Administrative division Horní Jiřetín consists of five municipal parts (in brackets population according to t ...

and as far as the city limits of

, while the third and fourth stages would encompass the area under CheZa - Chemické závody or the large chemical plant in Záluží u Litvínova which houses Czech oil refinery operations – and terminate close to the city of Most. Coal extraction at the ČSA mine started to be curtained in 2012, as coal deposits within the current limits are due to be exhausted sometime between 2017 and 2022.Czech Coal website, Litvínovská uhelná profile, retrieved 23 November 201

(English) In November 2012, the first of three overburden excavators was shut down.Deník, 10 November 2012. “Czech Coal starts to wind down mining at ČSA mine�

(Czech) Production at the ČSA mine fell in 2011 from 4.6 to 4.1 million tons, and in 2013 it will fall further to 2.5 million tons.

Reserves

According to Czech Coal, there are 41.6 million tonnes of high-grade lignite with a calorific value of 17.5MJ/kg within the current mining limits, and a further 750 million tonnes located outside the limits with allegedly the highest calorific value in the Czech Republic.

Recultivation

The future plan is for the area around the ČSA mine to become a lake again with a surface area of 1000.8 ha, a depth of up to 140m and a volume of about 692 million m3. It would eventually become one of six artificial lakes in greater mining region as a result of recultivation activities.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lom CSA Coal mines in the Czech Republic Most District

History

Mining limits

Reserves

Recultivation

See also

References