Geographical consequences of the surface exploitation of coal on the area of Tuzla basin, Bosnia and Herzegovina
The coal exploitation on the territory of today’s Tuzla basin has lasted from the Austro-Hungarian period onwards. The underground mining gradually became unprofitable and the production in these mines was constantly decreasing. That was the reason why many mines with underground exploitation were closed. The main reasons for that were increasingly unfavorable mining and geological conditions of the exploitation due to the position of the carboniferous layers at increasing depth. This initiated the surface exploitation of coal in the Tuzla basin. This type of coal exploitation started in 1946 in Banovići and Đurđevik basins and in 1967 in the Kreka basin. The exploitation in these basins was organized on several dozens of open pits. Today, exploitation is organized on open pits “Šikulje” and “Dubrave” (Kreka basin), “Potočari” and “Višća” (Đurđevik basin) and “Grivice”, “Turija”, and “Čubrić” (Banovići basin). For comparison, at the beginning of the 1990s there were between 50 and 60 open pits in Scotland, England and Wales and only a few of them are still open (Hughes, Clarke, 2002). Since 1950, in the Rhine carboniferous basin the number of open pits has decreased from 22 to 5, while, in the same period, coal production has been increased by 100 percent (Goedecke, 1978). The above mentioned mining investment projects Abstract