Brief history of OKD

The hard coal of the Ostrava region was already utilized by people in prehistoric times, however, organized mining has a relatively short history spanning over approximately 200 years. The nucleus of the subsequent OKD company was formed after the Second World War, when the six mining companies of the time were put under national administration. The concerns in their possession, that is a total of 32 mines, 9 coking plants, 10 mining power plants, ironworks in Třinec and Vítkovice and several other industrial concerns, were incorporated into a single state-owned enterprise called "Ostravsko-karvinské kamenouhelné doly Ostrava” (The Ostrava-Karviná hard-coal mines). In 1952 an OKD combine was retroactively dissolved and reformed (later the state-owned undertaking of OKD).

The modern history of the enterprise consists of two entirely different phases:

• OKD in socialist Czechoslovakia
• OKD after 1990

Both phases were distinct due to the political and economic environment. The transition between them was not easy. Nevertheless, OKD now has good reasons to have an optimistic expectation of the future.