The Czech government has granted the Bilina opencast lignite mine permission to access an additional 150-million tons of brown coal. The reprieve follows last year’s 5.5% fall to 38.3-million tons – half of the 1990 level – in the production of the mineral used to generate half of the Czech Republic’s electricity. In this picture, a worker inspects a stockpile of brown coal at Bilina, which is operated by Czech company Severoceske Doly AS, a unit of the majority State-owned CEZ. The lifting of mining limits in northern Bohemia has extended the openpit horizon for another 40 years and underground potential even further.