Summary of the lecture "The development of Limburg's coal mining industry
from c. 1850 to 1974"

The presence of coal in Limburg's soil had been known for some time: there were already two coal mines in operation in the easternmost part of southern Limburg. Explorations of the soil had proved that more western extractable coal was also present. The increasing demand for coal due to emerging industrialisation and the possibilities of getting through the water-bearing quicksand layers down to the Carboniferous rock made it possible to mine coal in Limburg. In the mid-19th century, there are several granted concession applications, but the applications get stuck in subsequent investments.

It is only towards the end of the 19th century that it is mainly foreign investors, who dare to start coal mining companies here on a larger scale. The Oranje-Nassau I and II, Laura and Willem-Sophia mines are built and come into production after the turn of the century. Large areas with coal in the ground were still free and the Dutch state reserved these free areas for State exploitation under the motto: mineral resources should benefit the whole of the Netherlands. In 1902, the State Mines were established. In 1906, the State Mine Wilhelmina came into operation and some years later the other three State Mines. The geological conditions in Limburg were less favourable than, for example, in the Ruhr region: thinner strata, more overgrown with rock, large influx of water and often greater depths.

In 1958, the Government released the import of cheaper coal from the United States and other countries, and thus the Limburg mines lost their now artificial profitability. Petroleum had also become a solid competitor. The reduction and closure of coal mining was inevitable, especially when a huge amount of natural gas was found in the soil in Groningen. At the end of 1974, the last mine closed. The closure of the mining industry punched a huge hole in employment and especially in the social structure of this part of Limburg. It is only now, several generations after the closure, that South Limburg is recovering somewhat.

This talk will be given by Jef Halmans. The history of engineering has always had his warm interest: first around the boom and bust of the mining industry and later around other industries. He had a regular column in Alcoa's staff magazine on the global development of the aluminium industry.

Speaker(s)

Jef Halmans (1945) lived in Heerlen near the Oranje-Nassau-Mijn I until 1971. After studying electrical engineering at the HTS in Heerlen, he joined the then still-named Lips-Aluminium, later Alcoa-Nederland in Drunen, after two other employers. After several years working in the technical department on various investment projects, he took over the management of the aluminium rolling mill. There, over the course of 10 years, capacity was more than doubled by improvements to the machinery without adding large costly machines. In the last years of his career, he served as Director of the entire Alcoa Group in the Netherlands. Alcoa meanwhile had other ambitions in Europe and the small rolling mill in Drunen had to give way to the big companies in Hungary, Spain and Russia. A closure programme with redundancy schemes for staff had to be developed and in 2003 that process was fully completed.

Organiser

History of Technology
Histechnica