Onderbanken

Schinveld (Limburgish: Sjilvend) is a village in the Dutch province of Limburg. It is located in the municipality of Beekdaelen.

Gangelt is a municipality in the district of Heinsberg, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is on the border with the Netherlands and about 10 km east of Sittard and 10 km south-west of Heinsberg. Its most well-known resident was cartographer Gerard Kremer, better known as Gerardus Mercator, who lived the first five or six years of his life there.

Brunssum (Dutch: [ˈbrʏnsʏm] ; Limburgish: Broensem) is a municipality and a town in the province of Limburg in the Netherlands. The municipality of Brunssum has 27,670 residents as of 2021. Brunssum was a center of coal mining until 1973.

Allied Joint Force Command Brunssum (JFCBS) is a NATO command with its headquarters at Brunssum, the Netherlands. It was established in 2004, as part of a reorganisation that reduced the number of NATO Military Command Structure headquarters.

The Dutch State Mine (DSM) Hendrik, in Dutch Staatsmijn Hendrik, was a coal mine located in Brunssum. It was run by the Dutch state through its company DSM. The mine was in operation from 1915 until 1963, when it was integrated with DSM Emma. DSM Hendrik was named after Queen Wilhelmina's husband Henry of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. The mine had four shafts. Shaft number 3 was a ventilation shaft on the Brunssummerheide near Nieuwenhagen. The deepest shaft 4 was 1,058 metres (3,471 ft) deep. Total production was 61.2 megatons of gas-rich coal that was used to produce coke.

Jabeek (Limburgish: Jaobik, English: Yescreek) is a village in the Dutch province of Limburg. It is located in the municipality of Beekdaelen, on the German border about 8 km east of Geleen. Jabeek borders on the German village Süsterseel.

Merkelbeek (Limburgish: Merkelbek) is a village in the Dutch province of Limburg. It is located in the municipality of Beekdaelen, about 9 km northwest of Heerlen. The village was first mentioned in 1283 as Merkelbeke. The etymology is unclear. Merkelbeek started in the Early Middle Ages along a brook and developed into a road village.The Catholic St Clemens Church is a three-aisled church with built-in tower with needle spire which was built between 1876 and 1878. In 1935, the choir was replaced by a transept and choir in Gothic Revival style.Merkelbeek was home to 309 people in 1840. It was a separate municipality until 1982, when it became part of Onderbanken. In 2019, it was merged into Beekdaelen.

The Oranje Nassau III was a Dutch coal mine located in Heerlen. The mine was in operation from 1914 until 1973. It was the third of four mines collectively known as the Oranje Nassau Mijnen.

Heerlerheide, in Limburgish Heëlehei or Gen Hei, is a Dutch village located in the commune of Heerlen, in the province of Dutch Limburg. On 1 January 2007, the village had 3180 inhabitants.

The Dutch State Mine (DSM) Emma, in Dutch Staatsmijn Emma, was a coal mine located in Treebeek, Heerlen (now part of Brunssum) run by the Dutch state through its company DSM. The mine was in operation from 1911 till 1973. It was the second-largest mine in the Netherlands, but it had the highest production of all Dutch mines at 109 megatonnes (120,000,000 short tons). Its deepest shaft III was 980 metres (3,220 ft) deep. After the 1963 merger with the DSM Hendrik the deepest shaft was 1,058 metres (3,471 ft) deep.

On the morning of 10 August 1998, 11-year-old Nicky Verstappen disappeared from a summer camp he was attending in Brunssum, Limburg. His body was found on the evening of 11 August, 1.2 kilometres (0.75 mi) away in Landgraaf, and a murder investigation was subsequently launched. Despite extensive investigation, the case remained unsolved for over twenty years. Joseph Theresia Johannes "Jos" B. (born 29 October 1962) stood trial for the killing of Verstappen in 2020. He was arrested on 26 August 2018 in Spain after DNA from his belongings and relatives matched samples taken from Verstappen's clothing, following the largest DNA-harvesting operation in Dutch history. On 20 November 2020, B. was acquitted of manslaughter, but found guilty of the kidnapping and sexual abuse that led to Verstappen's death, as well as of possession of child pornography. He was sentenced to twelve-and-a-half years' imprisonment. On 28 January 2022, an appeal court convicted B. on a charge of manslaughter and sentenced him to 16 years.