The Halemba coal mine is a large mine in the south of
Poland
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...
in
Halemba district of
Ruda Śląska
Ruda Śląska (; ) is a city in Silesia in southern Poland, near Katowice. It is a city in the Metropolis GZM, a metropolis with a population of two million. It is in the Silesian Highlands, on the Kłodnica River (tributary of the Oder).
It h ...
,
Silesian Voivodeship
Silesian Voivodeship ( ) is an administrative province in southern Poland. With over 4.2 million residents and an area of 12,300 square kilometers, it is the second-most populous, and the most-densely populated and most-urbanized region of Poland ...
, 273 km south-west of the capital,
Warsaw
Warsaw, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the Vistula, River Vistula in east-central Poland. Its population is officially estimated at ...
. Halemba represents one of the largest
coal
Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other Chemical element, elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen.
Coal i ...
reserves in
Poland
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...
, having estimated reserves of 120 million tonnes of
coal
Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other Chemical element, elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen.
Coal i ...
.
The annual coal production is around 3.36 million tonnes.
Explosion
In
a mining explosion in November 2006, 23 miners died.
A similar accident happened in 1990, when 19 miners died, and 20 were injured.
The explosion happened 21 November, 16:30 Polish time, at depth 1030m. The rescue action was hindered due to high concentration of
methane
Methane ( , ) is a chemical compound with the chemical formula (one carbon atom bonded to four hydrogen atoms). It is a group-14 hydride, the simplest alkane, and the main constituent of natural gas. The abundance of methane on Earth makes ...
and high temperature.
The cause of explosion was reported to be ignition of methane.
Polish president
Lech Kaczyński
Lech Aleksander Kaczyński (; 18 June 194910 April 2010) was a Polish politician who served as the city mayor of Warsaw from 2002 until 2005, and as President of Poland from 2005 until his death in 2010 in an air crash. The aircraft carrying ...
declared
national mourning in Poland from 23 November to 25 November.
See also
*
Halemba Power Station
References
External links
Official siteencyklopedia-solidarnosci{{Resources in Poland
Buildings and structures in Ruda Śląska
Coal mines in Silesian Voivodeship
1897 establishments in Poland