THE CARBONIFEROUS AREA is one of great importance. The chief coal deposits lie in a long narrow trough, which extends from Liege through Namur into Hainaut, and which is separated from the Ardennes by a great fault. In the west the Belgian coalfields are continuous with those of the north of France, while in the east they are connected with the German coalfield of Aachen. The principal mines are situated around Liege, Namur, Charleroi, and Mons, the most productive being those around Charleroi, which produce over one-third of the Belgian output of 24,000,000 tons per year. Many of the coal seams lie at a great depth, and, owing to folding, faulting, and overthrust, they are frequently worked only with considerable difficulty. The total available resources of this region have been estimated at between 15,000 and 16,000 million tons.
Many important industries have grown up in this region where coal is so abundant, and among these the manufacture of iron and steel holds a foremost place. Iron ore was formerly obtained from the Ardennes, but the amount produced there is rapidly decreasing, and France and Luxemburg now supply the bulk of the raw material. Charleroi and Mons have blast furnaces and make all kinds of iron and steel goods, locomotives and machinery. Liege has long been noted for the manufacture of ordnance and firearms, and is also engaged in various metallurgical pursuits. Belgium is able to export large quantities of cheap iron and steel goods partly on account of the relatively low cost of labour, and partly because transport to the coast is rendered easy by the magnificent system of waterways which the country possesses.
Glass is manufactured in the vicinity of the coal mines, Charleroi being the chief centre of production. In addition to coal, which is
at hand, large quantities of excellent sand are found in the Campine, and limestone appears along the northern border of the Ardennes ; but the industry, which is an old-established one, undoubtedly owes much at the present time to the inherited skill of those who are engaged in it. Chemical products and ceramic wares are also extensively, but not exclusively, produced upon the coalfields. Sulphuric acid is manufactured near Liege, in the vicinity of the zinc works, which formerly obtained their raw material from the Vieille Montagne in the neutral territory of Moresnet, but which are now compelled to import the most of it from abroad. Super phosphates are manufactured in the same locality, while sulphate of soda is largely produced in the neighbourhood of the glass-works, where it is in great demand. The earthenware- and brick-works situated in this region obtain the coarser material which they require from the clays underlying the loam of Hesbaye, while finer clays are found near Mons, to the south of Charleroi, and elsewhere. Verviers, situated on the dividing line between the Ardennes and the Carboniferous region, is the great centre of the woollen industry in Belgium, and owes much of its prosperity to the excellent facil ities for washing wool provided by the pure waters of the Vesdre and the Gileppe dam. Large quantities of foreign wool imported by way of Antwerp are washed at Verviers before being despatched for manufacture in Germany and Austria.