Active hard coal mine in Petroșani's Jiu Valley, one of Romania's last operating collieries, with closure planned by 2032.
Pușul Principal — E.M. Livezeni is the principal shaft of the Exploatarea Minieră Livezeni, an underground hard coal mine at Petroșani in the Jiu Valley, Hunedoara County, southwestern Romania. The Livezeni mining field was identified through geological surveys, with the first borehole investigations conducted in 1914 and resumed in 1955–1956. The mine was developed as part of the Romanian communist state's heavy industrialisation programme, with coal extraction beginning in the 1960s.
The mine extracts bituminous hard coal from multiple strata at depths of approximately 300 metres, supplying coal to the Paroșeni power station. Livezeni was one of the largest producers in the Jiu Valley at its communist-era peak and was the site of Romania's deadliest mining disaster of the late twentieth century, when underground gas explosions on 29 November 1980 killed 53 miners and rescue workers. The mine remains in operation under Complexul Energetic Hunedoara SA, which was declared bankrupt in March 2025, with formal closure of the Livezeni and Vulcan mines committed under Romania's national decarbonisation plan by December 2032.
The Jiu Valley hard coal basin in southwestern Transylvania was first worked from around 1840, when surface coal outcrops were exploited near Petroșani, Vulcan, and Petrila. The subsequent industrial development of the valley was driven by successive Austro-Hungarian mining companies and by the construction of the Simeria–Petroșani railway, completed in 1870, which connected the coalfield to wider Romanian and imperial markets. The Livezeni mining field, situated within the municipal territory of Petroșani, was not part of this early phase of exploitation. The first geological surveys of the Livezeni field were conducted in 1914, establishing its potential, and these investigations were resumed under the Romanian communist state between 1955 and 1956, confirming exploitable reserves.
Development of the mine took place in the late 1950s and early 1960s under the Combinatul Carbonifer Valea Jiului, established by ministerial order in September 1956. The mine produced its first coal in the 1960s as part of a major expansion of Jiu Valley output directed by the communist government to supply industrial and energy demand. By 1989, the Jiu Valley as a whole was producing almost eleven million tonnes of hard coal annually from eighteen active mines, with Livezeni and the adjacent Dâlja mine as the principal operations on the Petroșani territory. Multiple shafts were sunk at Livezeni, reaching depths of approximately 300 metres across several working levels. The principal shaft — Pușul Principal — served as the main personnel and materials access point and as the primary hoisting facility.
On 29 November 1980, two successive underground gas explosions at the Livezeni mine killed 53 people, including miners, mine rescue workers, and military conscripts. A further 77 people were seriously injured. The accident, the most lethal underground mining disaster in Romania in the second half of the twentieth century, was initially suppressed by the communist authorities and was not publicly reported for days. An investigation was concluded in May 1981, attributing the disaster to serious violations of technical and safety regulations. Senior mine management was removed from their posts and some individuals were placed under criminal investigation.
The mine continued to operate through the post-communist transition period. In 1991 the Combinatul Minier Valea Jiului was dissolved and replaced by the Regia Autonomă a Huilei, and in 1998 the National Hard Coal Company (Compania Națională a Huilei SA) was established to manage Jiu Valley extraction, with Livezeni as one of its constituent mines. In September 2012, Livezeni and three other operating Jiu Valley mines were merged with coal-fired power plants to create Complexul Energetic Hunedoara SA (CEH). By this time, Livezeni had emerged as one of two mines — alongside Vulcan — with sufficient reserves and geological conditions to continue beyond the restructuring that closed most other Jiu Valley collieries. The mine has reserves stated at 22.6 million tonnes.
CEH entered insolvency in 2019 and was formally declared bankrupt on 31 March 2025. Under Romania's national decarbonisation obligations tied to the National Recovery and Resilience Plan, the Livezeni and Vulcan mines are committed to cease coal extraction by 2030 and complete final closure and land remediation by 31 December 2032. European Commission state aid of €790 million was approved in November 2024 to cover exceptional costs associated with the closure of the four remaining Jiu Valley mines, including Livezeni. The surface infrastructure of the mine, including the principal shaft headframe, winding equipment, and pithead buildings on Strada Lunca, nr. 153 in Petroșani, remains in use as of 2025.