Research · the field study
The field studyAbandoned-mine methane in the EU
Before Aftermine had a name, it had a field study. It drills into one problem — methane seeping from Europe’s closed coal mines — as a scrolling descent: the inventory, one mine’s modelled twin, a first abatement unit, and the company thesis at depth.
No public source-level methane measurements were identified for the mines modelled in this study. Emissions are therefore modelled or estimated; mine metadata, scientific constants and regulatory dates come from published sources, and each figure is stamped with its evidence type. That gap between modelled and field-measured is not a footnote of the research. It is the thesis — and the first product.
Four acts · the descent that became a company
- I
The inventory
Discover and document the problem
- II
The shaft
Enter the mine's digital twin
- III
The working face
Design and deploy interventions
- IV
At depth
Inspect the evidence, assumptions and results
What the mitigation is worth
Kilotonnes of CH₄ per year, by scale. Multiply by 82.5 for the 20-year CO₂-equivalent lens, 29.8 for the 100-year — both are always shown together.
| Scale | kt CH₄ / yr | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| One good site | 1–3 | Estimated |
| The six named mines | ≈102 | Modelled |
| Study-inventory range — the 53 underground mines in the dataset | 185–200 | Modelled |
| Global abandoned coal mines | 4500–5000 | Estimated |
The largest sources
Six mines, half the total
Six of the 53 recently abandoned underground mines account for roughly half of all modelled EU abandoned-mine methane. Not one of them has a confirmed flooded-or-dry status.
| Mine | Country | Closed | MCM CH₄ / yr | Flooded? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ČSA Coal Mine | Czech Republic | 2021 | ≈36 | Unknown |
| Auguste Victoria Colliery | Germany | 2015 | ≈28 | Unknown |
| KWK Mysłowice-Wesoła I | Poland | not stated | ≈26 | Unknown |
| Darkov Mine | Czech Republic | 2021 | ≈24 | Unknown |
| KWK Rydułtowy I | Poland | not stated | ≈19 | Unknown |
| Prosper-Haniel Mine | Germany | 2018 | ≈18 | Unknown |
| Together | ≈152 | ≈102 kt | ||
Conflicting The EU's 2023 GHG inventory attributes 235 kt CH₄ (2021) to abandoned underground mines; Romania's own UNFCCC reporting alone claims ≈195 kt; GEM's asset-level dataset finds ≈193 kt for the whole EU (2015–2023 closures only). The disagreement is the data gap the regulation now forces closed. The disagreement plausibly reflects different mine populations, reporting years, and methods — asset-level modelling versus national inventory accounting — not simple error; the regulation forces exactly this reconciliation.
The regulation’s own physics: “It is estimated that even 10 years after mining has ceased, methane from non-flooded coal mines continues to be emitted at levels attaining approximately 40% of those recorded at the time of closure.” — Regulation (EU) 2024/1787, recital 54.
The seam field: all 70 mines in the study inventory, drawn to scale by modelled emissions. Click a numbered mine to open its dossier. The full descent — twin, unit, 3-D model, thesis — continues on the platform pages and in the full interactive study.
Sources · the ground the research stands on
Every number traces to evidence.
- Global Energy Monitor — Global Coal Mine Tracker, abandoned-mine methane dataset (June 2024)
- Regulation (EU) 2024/1787 on methane emissions reduction in the energy sector, Arts. 24–26
- IPCC AR6 WG1, Chapter 7, Table 7.15 — GWP of fossil-origin methane
- Kholod et al. 2020 — Global methane emissions from coal mining to continue growing even with declining coal production
- UNECE Best Practice Guidance for Effective Methane Management, No. 64
The study lives on this site in full — the interactive version: the seam field and its dossiers, the modelled digital twin, the abatement unit, and the venture thesis at depth, with the shaft gauge running the whole descent.
Review status: a venture research artefact, not peer-reviewed. Model assumptions and their sources are inspectable inside the study and on the Proof module; technical criticism and corrections are actively invited — report a correction.
Data: GEM June 2024 · Model: adapted Kholod M2CM · Page reviewed: August 2026