Brown coal mining limits in North Bohemia of mining operations whole villages, towns and even cities (Most) were demolished to extract the coal that lay beneath; their inhabitants were rehoused in large-scale new prefabricated panelled apartment buildings. The low quality technology used for large-scale burning of brown coal led to a sharp increase in the content of harmful sulfur dioxide and aerosols in the atmosphere. The result was wholesale damage to the environment (such as the die-back of the forests in the Ore Mountains from acid rain) and human health. In view of the unsustainable situation, the first post-communist Czechoslovak government decided to resolve the situation by
J & A Brown South Wales. From that time the surviving member of the Brown family Stephen Brown served as a director in the new public company. In 1960, JABAS merged with Caledonian Collieries Limited to form Coal & Allied Industries Limited. After this merger, JABAS become the subsidiary company that carried out the mining operations of Coal & Allied until being renamed Coal & Allied Operations Pty Ltd in 1980. As of 2013, Coal & Allied Operations Pty Ltd is a subsidiary of Rio Tinto Coal Australia. J & A Brown J & A Brown was an privately owned Australian coal family firm