Kohle

Coal: Until the end of the 19^th century the use of charcoal dominated, even in the iron industry in Styria. From the 2^nd half of the 18^th century onwards many sub-bituminous and hard coal deposits were opened up in Upper Austria (Hausruck mountains), Lower Austria (Thallern, Stanzendorf, Lunz), in Styria (Seegraben, Fohnsdorf, around Eibiswald, near Köflach and Voitsberg, hard coal in the valley of River Enns, anthracite on the Turracher Höhe mountain) and in Burgenland (Tauchen). During the Austro-Hungarian monarchy the vast reserves in northern Moravia (Czechia) and Silesia (Poland) supplied industry and railways with coal. After 1918 and again after 1945 closed or limited coal deposits in Austria were used to make up for the loss of these mines. Due to coal imports, the trend in the energy sector towards oil and natural gas and the intensified use of water power mining became less profitable, and many pits were closed, e.g. in Ratten (Styria) in 1960, in Seegraben near Leoben (Styria) in 1964 (coal had been mined there since 1606), in Grünbach am Schneeberg (Lower Austria) in 1965 (surface mining from 1827-1850, then underground mining, in 1951 172,000 t were extracted, total amount: 11 million t), in St. Stefan im Lavanttal (Carinthia) in 1968, in Fohnsdorf (Styria) in 1978 (deepest drift in the world). In order to guarantee the existence of the remaining mines thermal power plants were built (Köflach in Styria, Timelkam in Upper Austria), but only the mine in Köflach (30 million tons reserve, surface mining) is still operated, the mine in Ampflwang (in 1980 435,000 t were excavated, 1,629 miners employed) in the Hausruck Mountains region (Upper Austria), run by the Wolfsberg-Traunthaler AG, had to be closed in 1995. In 1994 coal extraction in Austria was 980,000 t. Most coal is used by the power plant in Dürnrohr (Lower Austria), which is run with Polish hard coal (6,000 t per day, annually more than 1 million tons).

Literature: H. Lackner, Kohlenbergbau und Technik, doctoral thesis, Graz 1980; A. Weiß, Kohlenbergbau in der Steiermark, in: Kohle und Glas, exhibition catalogue, Bärnbach 1988; A. Kusternig (ed.), Bergbau in Niederösterreich, Studien und Forschungen aus dem Niederösterreichischen Institut für Landeskunde 10, 1987.