Zenica Coal Mine - Bosnia-Herzegovina
An explore from my 2007 trip to the Balkans.
This is an old mine opened in 1884 and employs around 1,100 men. The shaft is 275 metres deep and the deepest seam worked is at 410 metres. Brown coal seams here are often several metres thick but the quality is low. There has been little investment in this mine since the civil war and it shows in the state of the buildings.
Permission was granted to view the outside of the mine from the yard but not to enter the buildings. The men working on the tipplers and creeper for the tubs seemed quite happy to see me there but the supervisor moved me off when he saw me taking photographs. A return visit at dusk enabled me to access the washery building which contains some archaic equipment and feeds the bunkers in the amazing wooden structure where road and rail wagons are loaded. This was also remarkable for the fact that water pumped from the mine passed through the washery and then emptied into the roadway where the lorries loaded. Needless to say the whole area was a morass of mud and coal slurry.
A surprising survivor of the old-fashioned type of mine that was once common in Britain.
The winding tower and tub circuit.
The tub creeper.
Tipplers
Under repair in the locomotive shed.
Loading bunkers.
The wooden loading bunkers are an amazing survival.
Inside the washery building.
The loading bunkers at night.
__________________
An explore from my 2007 trip to the Balkans.
This is an old mine opened in 1884 and employs around 1,100 men. The shaft is 275 metres deep and the deepest seam worked is at 410 metres. Brown coal seams here are often several metres thick but the quality is low. There has been little investment in this mine since the civil war and it shows in the state of the buildings.
Permission was granted to view the outside of the mine from the yard but not to enter the buildings. The men working on the tipplers and creeper for the tubs seemed quite happy to see me there but the supervisor moved me off when he saw me taking photographs. A return visit at dusk enabled me to access the washery building which contains some archaic equipment and feeds the bunkers in the amazing wooden structure where road and rail wagons are loaded. This was also remarkable for the fact that water pumped from the mine passed through the washery and then emptied into the roadway where the lorries loaded. Needless to say the whole area was a morass of mud and coal slurry.
A surprising survivor of the old-fashioned type of mine that was once common in Britain.
The winding tower and tub circuit.
The tub creeper.
Tipplers
Under repair in the locomotive shed.
Loading bunkers.
The wooden loading bunkers are an amazing survival.
Inside the washery building.
The loading bunkers at night.
