A coal mine together with all the buildings, equipment, and businesses connected to extracting and processing coal.
From collier (a coal miner) plus -ery (a suffix meaning 'place or business of'), ultimately from coal and the suffix -er.
The word 'colliery' perfectly captures how coal mining wasn't just holes in the ground—it was an entire ecosystem of machinery, workers, management, and communities that fundamentally reshaped human civilization.
Coal mining site terminology carries male-dominated labor history. The profession was legally and socially restricted to men in most industrial nations.
Use descriptively for the facility, but when discussing workforce, clarify that women have participated in mining historically and presently.
["coal mine","mining site"]
Women worked in collieries historically despite legal barriers; their labor is often invisible in official records.
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