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Mining flag

image by Željko Heimer and António Martins, 10 June 2017

Presentation
History
Description
Symbolism
Variants

See also:

Presentation

It is the flag of miners, I think used all over the world. At least in Croatia 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 D.D.R., but also later in Germany, and in Poland.
Željko Heimer, 13 April 1996

The flag was used in Yugoslavia, and is still used in Serbia and Croatia, and probably in other ex-Yugoslav countries, but these two are the only ones for which I can confirm: for Serbia, by viewing it on the television and photos, and for Croatia, by it being listed among the contemporary Croatian flags at the FAME website.
Tomislav Todorović, 10 June 2017

This mining flag seems to be indeed a kind of signal flag (and messaging flags are signal flags, but not all signal flags are messaging flags), pretty much as the “diver down” flag is, in as much as these two unrelated activities, mining and diving, could be. Its regionally restricted use (eastern Europe) doesn’t hinder its classification as an international flag.
António Martins, 10 June 2017

It actually represents an occupation — buildings, outdoor installations, mines themselves, companies, trade unions and so forth, are all known to use it when their activity is inherently related to the mining.
Tomislav Todorović, 10 June 2017

This is not a flag that would be prescribed by some law or similar.
Željko Heimer, 24 October 1999

History

Its current use in Serbia also implies the continuity of use in Yugoslavia until 2003, as well as in the Serbia and Montenegro 2003-2006. The date of adoption is currently not known, but the use in D.D.R. and Poland suggests dating it into the 1945-1948 period, i.e. between the introduction of Commmunism and the Soviet-Yugoslav split. It would be interesting to explore its possible use in other ex-Communist countries as well, for it seems to have been introduced along with, or shortly after the Communist system — perhaps imported from the U.S.S.R..
Tomislav Todorović, 10 June 2017

Description

It is green over black flag with two yellow crossed hammers in the middle.
Željko Heimer, 13 April 1996

There are variations of the same basic shape.
Željko Heimer, 24 October 1999

Symbolism

The symbolism of the flag is more than obvious green ground and black coal (I think the coal was the 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.
Željko Heimer, 13 April 1996

A nice explanation was presented in 2023 by Vedran Kos, the curator of the People's Museum in Labin, Croatia:
"The green-black miners’ flag is the same everywhere in the world, whether it’s Australia or South America, mainly because green and black are the miners' colors. [...] The black symbolizes depth and darkness, it symbolizes that moment when you’re underground, five hundred or a thousand meters, or I don’t know how many? And the green symbolizes that moment when you come out of the mine, to the surface of the earth. That’s why these black-green symbols are always associated with mining."
Source: https://5portal.hr/vijesti_detalj.php?id=41194
[Translated from Croatian to English using Google Translate.]
Tomislav Todorovic, 27 February 2025

Variants

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.
Željko Heimer, 24 October 1999

With additional elements

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 Oct 1999

With derrick

Recently I have also seen versions that have golden oil drill in between the two hammers.
Željko Heimer, 13 Apr 1996

Two photos of such a flag can be seen here (upside down):
https://www.njuskalo.hr/stare-stvari/velika-rudarska-zastava-oglas-37885980
Tomislav Todorovic, 28 March 2025

Black over green

image by Željko Heimer and António Martins, 20 October 2017

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.
Željko Heimer, 24 October 1999

image by António Martins-Tuválkin, 25 November 2017

Jaume did mention that the emblem is smaller and offset to the hoist. This in itself means that a different design exists, even if turns out that the flopped background was caused by accidental upside-down hoisting. It’s simple to tell apart, since the crossed tools are not horizontally symmetric, but it’s also easy to miss that detail while observing a flag, especially from photos or filmed scenes.
An idealized depiction of this reported design, with 3:5 ratio and the emblem centered on the hoist side square area its bounding box roughly 3/8ths or the flag’s height
António Martins-Tuválkin, 25 November 2017

Simple bicolor

image by António Martins-Tuválkin, 25 November 2024

A simple green over black mining flag exists. I saw this flag outside of the Wieliczka Salt Mine in Poland.
Daniel Rentería, 11 April 2024

Plain green-black bicolors were also hoisted in Labin, Croatia in early March 2020 to mark the 99th anniversary of the Republic of Labin, the miners' uprising which took place in 1921. According to the report, 210 small flags were hoisted on the street light poles and 6 large flags were hoisted on the roof of the former administration building of the Labin mine. The photos of both hoistings were presented which clearly reveal that the flags were plain.
Source: 5portal.hr website: https://5portal.hr/vijesti_detalj.php?id=22997&page=659
Tomislav Todorovic, 27 February 2025