Laura Coal Mine

The Laura coal mine was owned by the Belgian mining company Société des Charbonnages Réunis Laura et Vereeniging S.A.. This mining company was founded in 1899.
The name of the mine was named after Laura Wackers-Schümmer, the wife of Anton Wackers and sister of Gustav Schümmer from Herzogenrath who had obtained a coal concession in the area in 1876.
The construction of the Laura coal mine began in 1900. In 1901 the mining of the first shaft started and in 1902 the deepening of the second shaft was started. The first coal was produced in 1905.
Eight floors were eventually constructed at 120, 128, 153, 183, 274, 378, 550 and 680 meters below ground level. In the beginning, the mine suffered a lot from flooding. In 1908, a violent explosion occurred, killing seven people.
In 1917 a briquette factory was put into operation at the mine, the production that year amounted to more than 10,000 tons. The Laura, which mainly produced anthracite, reached its production peak in 1929 with 800,200 tons of coal.
A large fault line, the Feldbiss, in the middle of the concession, decided to build a new mine site with its own access shafts on the east side of the fault. In 1920 the mining of the shafts of the Julia began.
From 1967 onwards, a gradual concentration of the Laura and Julia mining sites was carried out, both above ground and underground. In early 1968, the underground integration was completed.
The entire underground occupation of the Laura was then transferred to the Julia mine, by means of three connecting stone corridors they could reach their old working point from there. Since that time, both shafts of the Laura have been used exclusively for coal transport.
Later, the mine's laundry was decommissioned and the entire above-ground coal processing was concentrated on the Julia. Eventually, the Laura mine was operated from the Julia mining site.
In 1970 the (above ground) demolition of the Laura began, and the decommissioned shafts of the mine were also closed for good. Four years later, on Friday, December 20, 1974, the Julia closed. This was the second last coal mine of
The Netherlands closed.
The very last mine, the Oranje-Nassau I in Heerlen, followed a week and a half later, on 31 December 1974. As a result, coal mining in the Netherlands had finally come to an end. The site of the Laura is now a residential area.

Tourist Board South Limburg (Visit Zuid-Limburg)