Editing Geleen (section)

==History==
Until the end of the 19th century, Geleen was a very small village. Its population was 2,545 in 1899.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.volkstelling.nl/web/excel/VT_1899_11_H1.xls|title=Volkstelling 1899: Limburg|format=XLS}}</ref> The remains of one of the oldest prehistoric farms in the Netherlands were found here. In the 20th century the exploitation of [[Coal mining|coal mines]] in this area (the state-owned coal mine "[[Staatsmijn Maurits|Maurits]]", the biggest in Europe, was located in Geleen) brought a fast population increase. During the 1960s and 1970s the [[Netherlands|Dutch]] coal mines, which were all located in this part of the province, were closed. The state mining company [[DSM (company)|DSM]] (privatised in 1989) remained active in Geleen, however, now purely as a [[Chemical industry|chemicals producer]]. In July 2002, part of DSM's petrochemicals business, located on the manufacturing locations in Geleen and [[Gelsenkirchen]] (Germany) were acquired by [[SABIC|SABIC Europe]].