France ends coal mining

The last lump of coal has been mined in France, ending nearly 300 years of an activity that fuelled the industrial revolution.

The symbolic lump was extracted from the Houve mine, in the eastern town of Creutzwald, near the border with Germany, as miners, local officials, and coal-industry executives gathered to witness the event.

In 1947, coal mining employed 360,000 people, and 11 years later, production peaked at 58.9 million tons. By the mid-1970s, the national output had become scaled-back to 25 million tons, and a decade later, the industry employed about 22,000 people.

Coal was first discovered in France in the early 18th century. The industry has lost money since it was brought under state control after the Second World War.

In the U.K., more than 150 mines have closed since the early 1980s, leaving only about 12 in operation, and three of those are slated to close later this year.

In France, 80% of the country’s power supply now comes from nuclear energy.