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Methane emissions from coal mining remain a significant environmental challenge in the European Union, particularly in the context of climate change commitments and the ongoing transformation of the energy sector. This article analyses methane emissions from surface and underground coal mining, distinguishing between emissions from mining activities, abandoned underground mines, and post-mining activities. A key aspect of the analysis is the methane emissions per 1000 tonnes of lignite and hard coal mined, which allows a comparison of emission intensities between different mining methods. Between 2009 and 2021, methane emissions from coal mining in the EU decrease, with reductions of 2436 kt CO2 eq. (87 kt CH4) from surface mining and 16,518 kt CO2 eq. (590 kt CH4) from underground mining. However, total methane emissions in 2021 still amount to 25,414 kt CO2 eq. (908 kt CH4), with underground mining contributing 84.7% of the emissions. Discrepancies in national emissions reporting and the lack of transparent data on methane emissions from imported coal make accurate assessments difficult. Strengthening international cooperation, improving data transparency, and exploring methane recovery for energy use are essential steps towards achieving the EU’s climate change objectives.

Strip-mined areas reclaimed for rangeland produce cattle weight gains that are just as good as those from cattle grazing undisturbed native ranges in the Northern Great Plains. The end of a 5-year study put the finishing touch on research to determine the best methods of establishing productive vegetation on disturbed lands. These lands have limited available soil resources and are very susceptible to wind and water erosion. Therefore, the success of plant establishment and its continued growth is crucial to protecting the soil, says Gerald E. Schuman, ARS soil scientist at Cheyenne, Wyoming. Schuman and other researchers at the High Plains Grasslands Research Station developed techniques to return disturbed rangeland to full production, then demonstrated that cattle can be grazed there without harm to the vegetation or loss in livestock production.

Pennsylvania - with 1/4 million acres of abandoned minelands - was a pioneer in the use of organic materials for stripped mineland reclamation. As a result of Pennsylvania State University experiments in 1977, minemix - a combination of 50% sludge compost and 50% anaerobically digested sludge - was developed. Minemix is applied to 250 to 500 acres of Pennsylvania minelands annually by Enviro-Gro of Baltimore, Maryland. The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released a study in 1990, comparing reclamation projects using minemix with comparable sites where chemical fertilizers were used. The EPA found no adverse environmental effects on the sites where minemix was used. The number of acres that benefit from minemix is small compared to the estimated 10,000 acres of mineland reclaimed each year in Pennsylvania. The Drummond Co. won a national award from the federal Office of Surface Mining for reclamation efforts involving the use of municipal sludge compost. Dwight Hicks of Drummond says that reuse of organic materials in mine restoration will increase.

The Konin region is widely considered to be the cradle of lignite mining in Poland, having probably exploited as early as the 12 century on the outskirts of the present-day town of Konin. However, not until the first half of the 20th century were lignite-rich deposits discovered. In turn, industrial lignite mining in this region was initiated by the Germans during the Second World War and has been continued by Polish crews since 1945. Thus, 80 years of Polish history of Konin Lignite Mine (KLM) will be celebrated in 2025. Over eight decades, KLM has launched several opencasts, only one of which remains at the start of 2025. During this time, hundreds of millions of tonnes of lignite (646.1 million tonnes) have been mined. In order to extract such large quantities of lignite, billions of cubic metres of water (6.14 billion m ) and overburden (3.59 billion m ) had to be pumped out and removed, respectively. In this way, the natural environment in the vicinity of Konin was strongly transformed geologically, hydrogeologically and geomorphologically. The results of these changes include numerous anthropogenic hills (external dumps) and water reservoirs (mining lakes). They, along with other post-mining areas, have been subject to reclamation since at least the 1970s. KLM is carrying out reclamation works in the following directions: water, forest, agricultural, recreational, etc. It is currently expected that lignite mining in the Konin region will most likely end in 2026–2027.

The paper investigates the stability of deep continuous surface lignite mining slopes. As excavation slopes are made relatively steep for exploitation purposes, the risk of slope instabilities is often appreciable, while the adverse consequences of a major failure are usually severe. Despite these, the design of lignite mining slopes against instability is often empirical, because the mechanisms causing such instabilities are poorly understood. Experience shows that slope instabilities are usually governed by sliding along a sub-horizontal, unfavourably sloping interface between a coal seam and an underlying stiff, high plasticity clay or marl layer, very close to the bottom of the slope. The typical mechanism of such instabilities is triggered by the sharp contrast in stiffness between adjacent lignite and clay/marl layers causing different elastic rebound upon removal of the horizontal confinement during excavation. The paper examines the effect of specific parameters on slope stability by a set of parametric analyses. It is shown that the most important parameter is the inclination of the sub-horizontal lignite–clay interface at the base of the slope. The paper also reviews several slopes in lignite mines which remained stable despite movements with relatively constant velocities reaching up to 100 mm/day, while others have failed when velocities accelerated abruptly although much smaller. These cases show that the absolute magnitude of slope velocity is not always relevant in predicting slope instability, while slope acceleration is a better indicator.