UK Coal Mining Licence Areas Since 1994

Licence Areas represent granted licences for the working of coal in the UK since the creation of The Coal Authority in October 1994. The dataset is provided by the Mining Remediation Authority, formerly The Coal Authority, which holds the statutory responsibility to licence and monitor coal extraction. The data was last updated on 2026-04-14.

Use Cases

• Map active and historical coal extraction zones based on licence boundaries.
• Analyze the spatial distribution of coal mining licences for land-use planning.
• Monitor regulatory compliance and the footprint of licensed coal operations.
• Study the transition of the coal industry post-privatization based on licensing activity.

Strengths

• Data is provided by the statutory authority (Mining Remediation Authority) responsible for licensing.
• Licence records cover a time range from October 1994 to the present.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Data may reflect geographic bias inherent to UK-focused sources.

Provenance

Source

Mining Remediation Authority (formerly The Coal Authority)

Collection Method

Administrative records of granted licences for coal extraction.

Time Range

October 1994 to present

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-14 15:22:14.030574; freshness should be verified.

Geography

United Kingdom