Lusatia's Lignite Pits: 81,000 Hectares of Scarred Coal Country Handed Back to Nature

After German reunification, LMBV took over the abandoned lignite pits, spoil heaps and ash dumps of East Germany's coal industry in Lusatia and Central Germany, which is wholly owned by the Federal Republic. Its 2025 annual report, signed on 24 April 2026, records that the mining predecessors claimed 100,310.8 hectares of land and that 81,375.4 hectares had been remediated by the end of 2025. In 2025 alone about 550 hectares of closed-off spoil-heap land was released for use again, and end of mining-supervision status was confirmed for another 358.5 hectares. The work involves reshaping unstable slopes, stabilising soil, flooding former pits into lakes, and replanting forest. LMBV's news feed shows earthworks still being completed in November 2026.