Separate northern shaft/headframe site associated with Mina Vulcan, probably connected with the older Crividia / Vulcan field workings.
This record documents a separate shaft/headframe site north of the main Mina Vulcan surface complex, in woodland above the town of Vulcan. It should not be merged with the main Mina Vulcan record. The broader Vulcan mining field included several historically distinct workings, including Vulcan Vest, Valea Lupului, Valea Crividiei, Vulcan Est, Puțul Principal, Puțul Plesnitoarea, Puțurile 15 and 13, Puțul Priboi and other associated shafts.
The position of this record north of the main Vulcan site suggests that it may relate to the Crividia / northern Vulcan workings rather than to the principal active mine yard. The exact formal shaft name should be confirmed from field evidence, maps or local mining records.
The first surface coal exploitation in the Vulcan area is associated with the activities of the Hoffmann brothers and Karol Maderspach, who began working the coal outcrop at Vulcan, Petroșani, and Petrila from around 1840, under the commercial and administrative framework of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. In 1884, the hotelier Pricop from Petroșani, having obtained a concession from the Kendeffy family covering the Arpad and Terezia mines in the Vulcan area, began formal opening works, with extracted coal transported by cart to Petroșani. Although exploitation works commenced between 1882 and 1884, successive ownership changes meant that the future Mina Vulcan was not formally opened until 1900, when mines were established in the Valle Lupului field between Valea Crividiei and Valea Lupului, extending as far as the limestone formations at Paroșeni–Măceșd.
The principal shafts sunk as part of this opening included Puțul Principal and Puțul Plesnitoarea, with Puțurile 15 and 13 subsequently added in Valea Arsului and Puțul Priboi in Valea Priboi. Before the First World War, a new mine was opened on Valea Crividiei approximately 580 metres north of the bank of the Western Jiu, accessed by Puțul Dr. Khorin. These works collectively formed the basis of the Grupul Vulcan.
Supporting infrastructure included a mechanical preparation facility, a funicular of 1,200 metres constructed in 1903 linking the Vulcan Est mine to the preparation plant, an inclined plane with chain transport, and an electric power station opened in February 1910 — the first such installation in the Jiu Valley. The settlement of Vulcan had grown from a small mountain village to a town of 5,000–6,000 inhabitants by the early twentieth century, with several workers' colonies — Cocoșvar, Eternit, Colonia de Jos, and Roter — established near the mine by the Austrian management. On 1 October 1931, the mines of Vulcan Est and Vulcan Vest were closed due to the interwar economic crisis.
During the early 1940s, the Vulcan area hosted Lagărul 9 Vulcan on the Crividia stream, where over 3,000 Soviet prisoners of war were held and employed in the valley's mines. Reconstruction of the Vulcan mine began in 1949, and the first tonnes of coal were brought to the surface on 9 April 1951. The mine was subsequently administered within the state's successive coal management structures: SOVROMCĂRBUNE until 1954, then the Combinatul Carbonifer Valea Jiului from 1956, Centrala Cărbunelui Petroșani from 1969, and the Combinatul Minier Valea Jiului from 1977.
Following the 1991 reorganisation, the mine passed to the Regia Autonomă a Huilei, and from 1998 to the Compania Națională a Huilei. The mine was assessed as one of the four profitable operations in the valley and was incorporated into the Hunedoara Energy Complex (Complexul Energetic Hunedoara) alongside Livezeni, Lonea, and Lupeni. The mine holds reserves of 23.5 million tonnes of coal.
Serious mine accidents were recorded in 1986 and again in 1989 and 2001 and 2002, involving methane ignitions with significant casualties. CEH entered insolvency in 2019 and was declared bankrupt on 31 March 2025. In November 2024 the European Commission approved €790 million in closure support for the four remaining Jiu Valley mines.
Under GEO 108/2022 and Romania's National Recovery and Resilience Plan, Vulcan is scheduled for safe closure by 31 December 2032, with final land reclamation to follow.