Czech Coal Group

He has been described as “a person with the reputation of an unscrupulous player and secretive pirate of Czech business comparable to Gordon Gekko …, professing greed as the highest virtue”.

[3] Further examples of Tykač’s alleged unscrupulousness include posting letters to the wives of shareholders who were refusing to sell him a Czech Coal competitor, Sokolovské uhelné, urging them to talk their husbands into the deal, and the way he dealt with a run-down but listed residence he owned in the exclusive Prague quarter of Vinohrady – it mysteriously caught fire twice and was eventually demolished without permission.

The limits restrict Czech Coal operations at the following open cast mines: Without the limits in place, mining activities would continue along the bottom of the slopes of the Ore Mountains, effectively destroy the townships of Horní Jiřetín and Černice, continue to within 500m of the town of Litvínov, and eventually encompass the area under the large-scale chemical plant and oil refinery at Záluží before terminating near the site of the former royal city of Most, which was demolished in the 1960s–1980s to extract the mineral deposits beneath and where Lake Most is now located.

[5] According to Czech Coal's regional policy spokesperson, Liběna Novotná, the company has approached nearly all property owners in Horní Jiřetín, 75% of whom were willing to discuss a future process, and of these 60% directly indicated which variant of compensation they would choose.

[5] Despite the fact that Horní Jiřetín residents earlier voted overwhelmingly to protect their town from mining,[6][7] Novotná believes it only a matter of time before the majority of inhabitants agree to compensation and relocation.