South Limburg coal mining basin

Coal mining in Limburg, a province of the Netherlands, has taken place since the 16th century.

Near the Augustinian Abbey of Rolduc, coal was found very close to the surface. The abbey owned the coal, and beginning in the 16th century hired local miners to extract the coal for sale as fuel. The true extent of the coal reserves in the south-east corner of Limburg first became apparent in 1870, when the wealthy Count Marchant and Ansembourg of Brussels ordered the first boreholes to be drilled near Eygelshoven, and a substantial seam of coal was found at a depth of 154 metres.

The demand for coal had grown explosively as a result of increased industrialization and urban expansion, but the national governments regarded any form of interference in the extraction and sale of this fuel as unnecessary. Thus it came about that the first concessions for the extraction of coal in South Limburg were granted without hesitation to foreign firms, although most of the coal consumed in the Netherlands was imported from Germany, and Dutch investors preferred to invest their capital in foreign countries, such as in Russian government loans, American railways, and Hungarian waterworks.