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Mining

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by Željko Heimer, 13 April 1996

It is green over black flag with two yellow crossed hammers in the middle. It is the flag of miners, I think used all over the world. At least here it is used by miners unions, as much as, by mining companies, it is hoisted in front of the mine entrances, and in front of the mining (and oil) companies, it is used during strikes and demonstrations and other pubic gathering of miners. I seem to recall seeing this flag on some news clips from former DDR, but also later in Germany, and in Poland.

The symbolic of the flag is more than obvious green ground and black coal (I think the coal was main thing that was excavated when the flag came in use), and hammers as typical mining tools was used as sign of miners probably even before.

Recently I have also seen versions that have golden oil drill in between the two hammers

Željko Heimer, 13 April 1996

Years ago Željko posted a flag attributed to miners that was green over black with central symbol in yellow. Some weeks ago I found a photo of this flag, but (according photo) is slightly different: first time is BLACK over GREEN instead green over black. Second, the central device seems to be displaced to hoist, and smaller in size that in Željko's picture. The identification is confirmed because the caption in the photo says it is the miner flag. Jaume Ollé, 23 October 1999

Well, this may be a variation, but from the symbolic that I was told, green over black seems more logical - green represent the earth surface ("green grass"), while black is the coal (or nowadays oil) underneath.

However, since this is not a flag that would be prescribed by some law or similar, no wander that there are variations of the same basic shape.

As I probably noticed when I was writing about it long ago, it is not unusual to see the same flag with third element between two hammers - an oil drill tower. At least, this is used on several companies in Zagreb, all connected more or less with oil business (hoisted beside the national and company flags).
Željko Heimer, 24 October 1999