Economy, Mining

Mining plays a small part in the German economy. Several minerals, however, are produced in sizable quantities. Hard coal deposits are mined in the Ruhr area and the Saarland. Brown coal, also known as lignite, is mined in the foothills of the Harz Mountains; near Cologne; in southeastern Brandenburg; and in central Germany. Before 1990 brown coal satisfied about three-fifths of East Germany’s energy needs, but caused enormous environmental problems. Since unification, East German brown coal extraction has been reduced, and the number of coal miners was cut from 133,000 to 28,000 by 1995. The federal government shut down the least productive East German mines and covered open strip mines with vegetation. However, brown coal continues to supply about one-third of the electricity needs of Germany. In addition, nuclear energy and hard coal, which burns more cleanly than brown coal, are gaining in importance. The German government subsidizes both the hard coal and brown coal industries.

Iron ore production declined in West Germany by the mid-1980s because the country was importing it at a cheaper rate than its own production would have cost. Germany’s potash salts industry ranks as one of the largest exporters of potash-based fertilizers in the world. The deposits are located mostly in Thuringen in central Germany. Four-fifths of the potash is exported. Thuringen also has significant amounts of copper.