Coal has a great importance for Czech economy - as coal-fired power plants produce almost 50% of the country's energy. It has commercial reserves in 4.5 bln tons of coal.
Most of the country's bituminous coal reserves are concentrated in the Upper Silesian coal basin (however only 15% of the basin's reserves are located in Czech Republic, while 85% refer to Poland). Lignite and sub-bituminous coal is presented with Bohemian, Cheb, Sokolov, and Zitava basins, from which Bohemian lignite basin is the largest one.
Currently six coalmining operators produce coal in Czech Republic: three companies extract bituminous coal in Upper Silesian basin (about 12-13 mtpa), while three other companies produce lignite and sub-bituminous coal (48-49 mtpa). Currently Czech Republic produces about 60-62 mtpa of coal, while at the Communist era it extracted up to 128 mtpa (this record level was reached in 1984). Double shrinking of coal production was caused with increase of the nuclear power and natural gas share in energy production.
Czech Republic exports about 8.5 mtpa of coal (mainly lignite and sub-bituminous coal to Slovakia) and imports about 3 mtpa of coal from Poland and Ukraine; import is presented with bituminous coal, mainly of coking grades.