Coal Mine K-ID

An abandoned coal mine, mothballed in the 1990s. Inside, the mine keeps its rails, carts, a hoisting machine and an ore loader.

The coal lay in a seam averaging 1.2 metres thick, dipping at about 20°. The adit driven through it branches off left and right into worked-out chambers from which the coal was extracted. Their roofs are shored with wooden props and poles, many of them cracked. In the main adit the supports are of concrete blocks or arches welded from rails. There is a great deal of fallen rock and collapsed supports. The mine had a lower level, now flooded; the inclined descent to it is partly passable. There is also an upper level, but no connection to it has been found.

A gas detector is essential when visiting the mine. After every collapse the oxygen level in the adit drops. After one of them it falls below 18%, and going any further becomes impossible, even though the adit continues.

The mine’s surface infrastructure has also survived quite well: a bridge across the river carrying the rails of the mine train, rusty carts overgrown with grass, an electric locomotive in its depot, a compressor station, inclined conveyors and several abandoned buildings.

Around the site there are signs such as “no entry” and “danger to life” in Albanian, and a couple of dogs roam about. No people are to be seen, but someone clearly keeps an eye on the place from time to time.