Zeitschrift für Pulvermetallurgie und Bergbau

Abstrakt

Coal Mining's Long-Term Viability. Is Germany A Good Example for Colombia After Mining?

Jaime Oscar Restrepo

To assess the impact on the labor market of a coal phase-out, it is not sufficient to merely calculate the number of mining industry jobs. In this paper, we gauge the size of backhanded positions in Europe's biggest hard coal mining district, Upper Silesia and classify them as mining-related or mining-subordinate. Utilizing information from public tenders offered by five of the country's largest coal enterprises, as well as financial and employment data from official administrative repositories, we also provide a comprehensive overview of the structure and spatial distribution of mining-related companies. According to our observations, there is a significant agglomeration effect in the region, with 80% of all tender revenues going to businesses that are within 20 kilometers of the closest active hard coal mine. In addition, we discovered that, in the event of a decline in coal production, 41% of all jobs identified in Upper Silesia mining-dependent businesses face imminent closure. Finally, in order to overcome the drawbacks of the majority of top-down modeling approaches, we advocate for labor market mitigation policies that are specifically tailored to mining-dependent employees and recommend the widespread use of administrative data in just transition planning.

For quite a long time, coal mining assumed a vital part in Germany's financial history. It drove its industrialization as well as upheld its recuperation after The Second Great War. This industry in Germany entered a deep crisis in the middle of the 20th century primarily due to its high production costs. German hard coal mining was ultimately shut down as a result of this in 2018. Coal mining has also been a big part of Colombia's economy, especially since the big concessions started in the 1980s. The closure of this industry in Germany posed significant difficulties that have been resolved through ongoing regional structural transformation processes. In like manner, Germany's arrangement to deliberately get rid of coal from its energy network has additionally involved extraordinary moves that have expanded because of the ongoing energy emergency in Europe. On account of Colombia, worldwide patterns to diminish coal utilization will definitely influence its public funds in the medium term. Some projections of global energy and coal consumption, in addition to a comparison of scenarios from these two nations, demonstrate that strategies for the Colombian context can benefit from certain German experiences, particularly with regard to the processes of regional structural change.