Sokolov Coal Basin

a coal basin in Czechoslovakia; located in West Bohemia, Czech Socialist Republic. The Sokolov Coal Basin has deposits of brown coal that extend approximately from the city of Cheb to the city of Karlovy Vary. The center of the basin is the city of Sokolov. Reserves are estimated at 2 billion metric tons. The coal lies near the surface and is extracted principally by open-pit mining. The output was 20.1 million tons in 1972.