ABSTRACT
Out of the over 70 low-effective coal mines in Ukraine, only few may be considered as definitely futureless and thus subject to immediate close-down. The majority of them, each having 30 to 50 km of underground cavities left after extraction, may still be economically exploited. On the other hand, the rate of ground water inflow average to 400 m3 per hour, posing an enormous obstacle to mine functioning and an important environmental problem in case of mine close-down. The paper describes a well-rounded method for complex estimation of the subject mines, taking into account a full range of economic and environmental factors.
