A speculative venture concept
AftermineInfrastructure after extraction
Aftermine develops the infrastructure that comes after extraction — measuring residual methane, reducing emissions, recovering energy and water, and restoring former mining landscapes for their next productive life.
This page reads upward. It opens at depth, where the problem lives, and rises — like the land it describes — to a restored surface.
The ascent · read from the bottom
- regrowththe next productive life
- surfacerestored, public again
- overburdenland & habitat
- workingsenergy & water recovered
- flooded zonemine-water heat
- the seammethane measured, destroyed
Schematic, not to scale. Our field study descends this column. Aftermine climbs back out.
The liability · at depth
Closed mines don’t stop emitting. They stop being counted.
The EU’s abandoned underground coal mines emit roughly 193 kilotonnes of methane a year Modelled — and for most of them, no one has measured anything at all.
53 underground, 17 surface — GEM asset-level dataset.
≈287 MCM — average of the unknown-dry and unknown-flooded scenarios — a modelling convention, not a measurement.
34 of 53 underground mines. Flooding is the single biggest lever — and mostly nobody knows.
CO₂-equivalent over 20 years (29.8× over 100). Both lenses always shown together.
| Mine | Country | Closed | MCM CH₄ / yr | Flooded? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ČSA Coal Mine | Czech Republic | 2021 | ≈36 | Unknown |
| Auguste Victoria Colliery | Germany | 2015 | ≈28 | Unknown |
| KWK Mysłowice-Wesoła I | Poland | not stated | ≈26 | Unknown |
| Darkov Mine | Czech Republic | 2021 | ≈24 | Unknown |
| KWK Rydułtowy I | Poland | not stated | ≈19 | Unknown |
| Prosper-Haniel Mine | Germany | 2018 | ≈18 | Unknown |
| Together | ≈152 | ≈102 kt | ||
Conflicting The EU's 2023 GHG inventory attributes 235 kt CH₄ (2021) to abandoned underground mines; Romania's own UNFCCC reporting alone claims ≈195 kt; GEM's asset-level dataset finds ≈193 kt for the whole EU (2015–2023 closures only). The disagreement is the data gap the regulation now forces closed.
The regulation’s own physics: “Even 10 years after mining has ceased, methane from non-flooded coal mines continues to be emitted at levels attaining approximately 40% of those recorded at the time of closure.” — Regulation (EU) 2024/1787, recital 128.
I The inventory
The seam field
how to read the seam field close
the broken inventory — flooded status, conflicting totals close
the regulation — who is responsible, and by when close
The seam field, from our field study: 70 mines drawn to scale by modelled emissions. Click a numbered mine to open its dossier. The full descent — twin, unit, 3-D model, thesis — continues on the platform pages and in the full interactive study.
The deadline · Regulation (EU) 2024/1787
The clock is already running.
For the first time, member states must inventory, measure and mitigate methane from closed and abandoned mines — with venting and flaring prohibited from 2030. An obligation this size, on assets nobody wanted, is the opening Aftermine is designed for.
- 2025-08-05
Inventories dueArt. 25(1)
Member states publish an inventory of all closed and abandoned underground coal mines where operations ceased after 3 August 1954.
- 2026-05-05
Measurement beginsArt. 25(2)
Methane measurement required on all inventoried elements found to emit above 0.5 t CH₄/yr.
- 2026-08-05
First emissions reportsArt. 25(6)
First yearly reports of source-level methane emissions — estimates, covering the last available calendar year; annually by 31 May thereafter.
- 2027-02-05
Mitigation plansArt. 26(1)
Member state mitigation plans covering closed and abandoned mines alike, with key implementation milestones.
- 2030-01-01
Venting & flaring prohibitedArt. 26(2)
Venting and flaring prohibited outright for in-scope equipment; the only exceptions are demonstrated technical infeasibility or a risk to safety.
The platform · eight layers
One platform, from first measurement to next life.
Eight layers in the order a real site needs them: know it, model it, stop the leak, recover energy and water, validate the biology, restore the land — and prove every number along the way.
Mine intelligence & project screening
Atlas
The inventory layer: every closed and abandoned mine, what it emits, who is responsible, and what it could become.
Explore Atlas →Interactive 3D digital twin
Twin
A modelled underground for every mine: geometry, gas, water and every candidate intervention — comparable before anything is built.
Explore Twin →Technology-neutral methane management
Methane
Measure, control, recover where feasible, treat what remains, and verify continuously. The route is chosen by the gas, not by the brochure.
Explore Methane →Post-mining energy systems
Energy
Flooded workings hold low-grade heat; cleared land holds sun. The site that leaked energy becomes the site that supplies it.
Explore Energy →Mine-water treatment & recovery
Water
Mine water is a liability that outlives the mine by a century. Treated, it becomes heat, habitat and — sometimes — a resource.
Explore Water →Biological research & resource recovery
Bio
Carefully validated biological systems — piloted at research scale, promoted only when the numbers survive measurement.
Explore Bio →Landscape transformation
Ground
The visible layer: stabilised, restored, public land — with the mining past interpreted, not erased.
Explore Ground →Measurement, reporting & verification
Proof
The layer that keeps the rest honest: live data, model-versus-measurement, provenance, uncertainty — published.
Explore Proof →Back at the surface
A second life for mined land.
We envision former mines that are no longer invisible liabilities: methane measured and mitigated, mine water providing useful heat, disturbed land carrying renewable energy and restored ecosystems — and the evidence for all of it published.
Pilot · a case study on a real mine
Auguste Victoria, reworked
The pilot is a case study on the second-largest source in the EU inventory — a Ruhr colliery closed in 2015. Its modelled methane, its unknowns, and the five systems Aftermine would build on its ground.
Read the case studyResearch · the field study
The research behind the company
The field study this company concept grew from: the EU abandoned-mine methane inventory, a modelled digital twin of one mine, and the venture thesis — with its kill criteria published.