Coal Essay

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Recommended: Negative and positive effects of coal mining on the economy

Coal is a non-living resource and a non-renewable resource; it can be defined as a resource that is being consumed at a faster rate than it can be replaced. Coal is formed from the compression of vegetable matter over millions of years. Coal is used to power electricity and a range of everyday products that will be discussed throughout the report and is mined underground or in an open pit.
Questions needed to be asked to determine how long the resource will last.
• How much of the resource remains?
• How quickly is the resource being consumed? Different resources are being utilized at different quantities and rates.
• Is the resource renewable or non-renewable? Time taken to be naturally replaced.
• Would it be expensive to recover the resource? Recovery can mean its extraction from raw materials and wether a resource is recovered or recycled can deepened on the market value of itself.

Extraction
Coal is mined using giant machines to remove the coal from the ground. Only black coal is mined underground, as it is more valuable other coal is mined in an open pit.
The process usually involves creating a geological map of the area, then carrying out geochemical and geophysical surveys, followed by exploration drilling. This allows an accurate picture of the area to be developed. The area will only ever become a mine if it is large enough and of sufficient quality that the coal can be economically recovered.

The youngest coal is not even coal yet it’s called peat. It is cut from the earth, dried and burned for heat. The energy content of peat is quite low.
Young coal is called lignite, and is soft and brown, not much different than dried peat. Lignite has low energy content. The carbon content is low also; Lignite is typically...

... middle of paper ...

...ts for when the day comes that we are short on coal but that should be to the near future.
Bibliography
Images: www.yancoal.com.au www.industryleadersmagazine.com www.greenleft.org.au cafnec.org.au http://www.google.com.au/imgres?q=coal+coke&um=1&hl=en&safe=active&sa=N&biw=784&bih=443&tbm=isch&tbnid=dDFlpc4Op6p5MM:&imgrefurl=http://www.thyssenkrupp.com/en/presse/bilder.html%26photo_id%3D979&docid=BqzfDDwMvGxYwM&imgurl=http://media.thyssenkrupp.com/images/press/thyssenkrupp_p_979.jpg&w=2126&h=2126&ei=flZKUYLBJMftkgXRoIDYCg&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=356&vpy=2&dur=374&hovh=225&hovw=225&tx=151&ty=57&page=3&tbnh=147&tbnw=162&start=20&ndsp=12&ved=1t:429,r:22,s:0,i:154 uky.edu

Information:
Science in practice textbook 2 http://www.coaleducatio.org/q&a/what_are_the_chemical.htm http://www.buzzle.com/articles/what-is-coal-used-for.html http://www.australiancoal.com.au/ bma.com.au

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