Large preserved Flemish coal mine complex now operating as the be-MINE heritage, museum, and recreation destination in Limburg.
The Steenkoolmijn van Beringen was one of seven collieries in the Belgian Kempen coalfield, situated on the territory of Koersel near Beringen in the province of Limburg. Exploratory drilling confirmed coal deposits in the area between 1902 and 1903, and the concession Beeringen-Coursel of 4,950 hectares was granted on 26 November 1906. The operating company Société anonyme Charbonnages de Beeringen was founded on 23 February 1907, with capital held predominantly by French industrial groups.
Shaft sinking began in 1907 but was interrupted by the First World War; the first coal seam was reached on 20 October 1919 at 623 metres depth. Production began in 1922, with working levels at 727, 789, and 850 metres. The colliery reached peak employment of 6,796 miners in 1948 and its highest annual output of approximately 1,900,000 tonnes in 1956.
It closed on 28 October 1989 after producing a total of around 79,332,200 tonnes. The surface complex is largely intact, protected as a monument since 1993, and now forms the core of the be-MINE heritage and recreation site, which also houses the Flemish Mining Museum.
The Steenkoolmijn van Beringen occupied a position at the heart of the Kempen coalfield, one of the last major coalfields to be developed in western Europe. References to coal in the area date to fourteenth-century documents, but systematic exploitation did not begin until the late eighteenth century across the region. In 1901, Professor André Dumont confirmed the presence of coal in Belgian Limburg during overnight drilling operations. Between 1902 and 1903, six test borings between the villages of Beverlo, Beringen, Koersel, and Paal confirmed viable deposits. Further Foraky survey borings followed between 1904 and 1909 to establish the optimal shaft location. An initial site at Langeneiken was considered and land purchased there, but further investigation revealed an underground water body, and the decision was made instead to locate the pit at Kleine-Heide on Rijksweg 21. Clearance of the site began in 1909.
The concession Beeringen-Coursel, covering 4,950 hectares across the communes of Koersel, Heusden, Lummen, Beringen, Oostham, Paal, Tessenderlo, and Beverlo, was granted on 26 November 1906. Three companies that had conducted the preparatory surveys received the concession, which was transferred to the newly formed operating company three months later. The Société anonyme des Charbonnages de Beeringen was established at Liège on 23 February 1907 with an initial capital of 25,000,000 francs divided into 50,000 shares. The majority of shares passed to French industrial groups including the Société anonyme des Hauts-Fourneaux et Fonderies de Pont-à-Mousson, La Compagnie des Aciéries de la Marine et d'Homécourt, the Société des Forges du Nord et de l'Est, and Les Aciéries de Michéville. Capital increases in May 1919, November 1920, and December 1923 further consolidated French control, so that by 1931 fourteen of the eighteen board members held French nationality.
Shaft sinking for Schacht I began in 1910, and for Schacht II in 1912. Both shafts have a useful diameter of six metres. The frozen ground technique was required given the 622-metre overburden of sand, marl, chalk, and peat deposits, all largely water-bearing. Schacht I flooded in both 1913 and 1920, requiring renewed application of the freezing method devised by engineer Louis Sauvestre from depth 585 metres. The First World War caused further disruption: from 1916 the company was placed under German forced administration, and in 1917 the occupying forces dismantled the 2,000 kW turbine and transported it to Germany. Despite these setbacks, the coal seam was reached on 20 October 1919 at a depth of 623 metres.
The wooden sinking towers were replaced from 1919 onwards by permanent steel headframes. The headframe above Schacht II was the first to be erected, designed by engineer L. Lemaire of Liège and built by the S.A. du Nord de Liège; it consists of an open steel lattice structure on four concrete supports. The headframe above Schacht I, built by DEMAG of Duisburg between 1926 and 1928, used a somewhat different construction with lighter legs of single-crossed compound lattice girders. Both headframes stand approximately 60 metres high. Around 1950, the ironwork of Schacht II's legs was encased in concrete as protection against corrosion. Each headframe was served by two winding houses of one and a half storeys in brick construction on a stone plinth.
Coal production began in 1922, with the first working levels established between 727 and 789 metres depth. After the Second World War both shafts were deepened to 849-850 metres to open an additional horizon. The coal preparation plant, a ten-storey steel lattice structure with glass and brick infill panels built above railway sidings for direct wagon loading, began operation in September 1924, two years after production started. The reception building and coal washing plant were completed in the same period, with the boilerhouse completed in 1924 in a concrete frame with brick infill. Four concrete cooling towers were built to replace earlier wooden predecessors, dating from 1923, 1926, 1942, and 1952 respectively; these are the only surviving mine cooling towers in the Limburg coalfield. The pithead baths and changing rooms were constructed in three phases between 1922 and 1953.
The concession was extended in 1954 to 5,271 hectares, and from 1959 coal was also extracted from a leased portion of the adjacent Oostham-Kwaadmechelen concession. Peak employment of 6,796 miners was recorded in 1948. Peak annual production of approximately 1,900,000 tonnes was achieved in 1956, the zenith of Belgian coal's post-war golden age. Between 1946 and 1956, large numbers of Italian workers arrived in Limburg under bilateral labour agreements; after the Marcinelle disaster of 1956, which killed many Italians working in Belgian mines, Italy terminated that agreement and the collieries recruited workers from Greece, Spain, Turkey, and Morocco instead. During the Second World War the colliery operated under German administration, with coal exported directly to Germany and Russian prisoners employed underground; after liberation German prisoners of war took their places.
As cheap imported energy undercut Belgian coal from the late 1950s, the industry entered a long contraction. Production at Beringen continued beyond several earlier closures in the Kempen coalfield. The last coal wagon ascended on 28 October 1989, the second to last Kempen colliery to close; the Heusden-Zolder colliery closed finally in 1992. Total net production over the mine's operating life reached approximately 79,332,200 tonnes. The shafts were sealed and backfilled after closure, as was standard practice for Belgian collieries.
Planning for a museum on the site had already begun during the final years of extraction. The Flemish Mining Museum opened at the site in 1986, housed principally in the former social building. The majority of the surface buildings were preserved intact. Heritage protection was granted in December 1993, when the main mine buildings were listed as a protected monument; the coal washing plant and sedimentation tanks received separate protection in December 1994. In 2009, a major redevelopment project named be-MINE was launched to transform the abandoned colliery into a heritage, tourism, and residential destination. The greened-over slag heaps were converted into a recreation area with an adventure mountain and panoramic viewpoint. A swimming and leisure complex was constructed alongside the cooling towers. The railway tracks, coal wagons, and signalling equipment of the former marshalling yard were preserved in a rail heritage park. In 2011, the Flemish government allocated funds for the restoration of the four distinctive cooling towers.
