Over 2,000 workers will be affected by the closures, an employment number significantly lower than the 51,420 estimated coal mining industry workers in 1985.
Spanish coal is primarily sold to the nation's own thermal power plants for electricity production, according to a report from Telesur.
Similar to other developed nations in Europe, the EU member has seen its coal extraction industry decline for some 30 years.
Although all Spanish coal mines will be closed, the mineral will continue to be imported from Russia and Columbia — among other sources — and burned to produce electricity for power grids until 2020, according to Telesurtv.net.
Madrid has decreed that in 2020 Spanish thermal power generation plants burning coal must cease operations, shuttering for good or switching to mandated sources, including solar and wind power.
