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The coal mining industry and the variability of its activity have played a decisive role in the structuring and regional evolution of the central–eastern and northeastern areas of Coahuila state, since its origin almost a century ago. The dependence of this region on mining exploitation in the absense of other economic activities that constitute real development alternatives, have made this region become a vulnerable and economically fragile one, as has been evident in the critical moments of its recent economic history. The aim of this paper is to offer a preliminary global vision of the historical evolution of Coahuila´s coal mining industry, and the most relevant changes experimented of this activity as well as its geographic impact, in the context of the neoliberal economic politics of the last years.