|
VOERDE, Germany -- About a half-mile under the Earth's surface here, dozens of soot-faced miners scrape coal from some of the richest seams in the world, just as their forebears had done for generations. Conveyor belts funnel the shiny black rock through crushing machines and up to the surface, where it helps to power the globe's third-biggest economy.
Germany's 500-year-old tradition of hard-coal mining, however, is dying out. With domestic coal long unprofitable because of cheap imports from Africa and Asia, the German government this year decided to gradually withdraw expensive subsidies that have kept its mines open for nearly a half-century.
Today, only eight hard-coal mines are in operation, down from more than 100 at the industry's peak in the late 1950s. The last of those is set to close by 2018, when the subsidies dry up. And with that, there will be no more German hard-coal miners, who once numbered more than 500,000.
From : Democratic underground.com
|
Login
Register
FAQ
Search
