Joint future – the Lusatian way
A thorough investigation is made during the planning and approval procedure whether resettling communities for opencast mine purposes is avoidable. If it does come to resettling, we pay great attention to social acceptability and an adequate participation of the resettlers in the Lusatian mining area. The aim is to have a joint resettlement to one site. Local and cultural identity should be preserved, to increase the likelihood of regaining the new sense of home.
Besides material compensation our action plan involves a differentiated planning of the new location, the settlement of businesses and the continuation of clubs or associations. Also potential future opportunities for the concerned communities are taken into careful consideration.
Past resettlements
Between 1993 and 2006 several villages and communities with a total of about 1,350 inhabitants had to be resettled from around the opencast mines Welzow-Süd, Jänschwalde and Nochten. Since 2008 parts of the Trebendorf and Schleife municipalities with 270 inhabitants have been resettled for Nochten opencast mine's approved mining field 1.
Planned resettlement
On 30 March 2017 the Supervisory Board of Lausitz Energie Bergbau AG approved the Lusatian mining district concept for the next 25 to 30 years. The decisions of the Federal Government to phase out coal gradually until the end of 2038 as the latest made it necessary to adjust this mining district planning, which LEAG submitted at the beginning of 2021.
This adjusted mining district planning still includes the mining use of the Mühlrose subfield in the Nochten opencast mine following the current mining area I. The coal reserve of the Mühlrose subfield of around 150 million tonnes ensures that the modern power plant units in Boxberg and Schwarze Pumpe are supplied in line with demand until their closure. As a result, around 200 inhabitants of the Trebendorf district of Mühlrose will have to resettle. The resettlement contract was signed on 28 March 2019. Within five years, the resettlement to the new location in the north of Schleife chosen by the inhabitants of Mühlrose is to be completed.
The continuation of the Welzow-Süd opencast mine into spatial section II is no longer part of LEAG's adapted mining district planning due to the accelerated coal exit. This means that a total of around 800 residents of residential area 5 and Liesker Weg in the town of Welzow, the Welzow district of Proschim with Karlsfeld and the Lindenfeld area in the municipality of Neu-Seenland will not be resettled.