Carbosulcis Coal Mine

39º 12' 32'' N 8º 26' 17'' E

Sardinia

Italy

Description

The Carbosulcis Coal Mine is a coal mine located in Sardinia. The mine closed its coal production activities in 2018, following a negotiation with the European Commission concerning state aid to the mine. Its annual production capacity in 2012 ammounted in 1.5 million tonnes.

Extracted Materials

The mine has coal reserves amounting to 2.5 billion tonnes of sub-bituminous coal, one of the largest coal reserves in Europe and the world. 

Antropological info

Carbosulcis, a Sardinian Regional Government Company, owns the mining concession for the exploitation of the Sulcis coal basin.
The company is currently in the process of restoring the sites and securing the mine following the closure of the coal mining activity.

Sociologal info

People have no problem in talking and discussing things unhurriedly over some time. So it’s impossible to meet with more than two people in one day.

Archaeological info

The production facilities are settled on a 60 Ha surface site.  The amount of underground coal reserves in the mine concession is over 60 M tons.  More than 30 km of galleries have been tunnelled underground (about 15 km are main galleries).  Mine depth is between 350 and 500 m under ground (400 m below the sea level).

Sustainable tourism insights

Life spent at Carbosulcis, Giuseppe Fonnesu works the whole summer on the preparations and, It seems a perfect spot for tourists to visit.

Environment sustainability

Carbosulcis is the only company in Italy that exploits the hard coal extracted from the Nuraxi Figus mine in the Sulcis-Iglesiente area in Sardinia. Nuraxi Figus is the only operational coal mine and the only coal basin in Italy. It consists of a single production unit. The products obtained by the company can only be sold in the domestic market for the purpose of producing electricity. The total output of Carbosulcis is purchased by the nearby Portovesme thermal power plant. Sulcis coal has an average NCV of 5 100 kcal/kg, an average sulphur content of 6,5 % and an average ash content of 15 %. Therefore it is of low quality and has a low calorific value.