LONGWALL TOP COAL CAVING IN THE CENTRUM MINE IN THE CZECH REPUBLIC

Most of the brown coal deposits in the Czech Republic are mined using the methods of surface mining. The last underground mine where brown coal is mined is the Centrum Mine (situated between the town of Most and the town of Litvinov). There, coal was mined using the method of chambering in full seam-section or in two slices with caving, later then using the method of four-slice longwall mining with caving. After the application of the above-mentioned mining methods, about 60-70 % of unexploited reserves have remained underground. In the contribution, the findings from the current mining of residual reserves in the conditions of Centrum Mine using the longwall top coal caving method, which increases the recovery of coal, are summarised. [1]