Environmental Issues In The Coal Industry

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The Coal industry has many different segments. The environmental challenges continue to be a problem causing significant damage from coal mining, including the accidents, land subsidence, water environment, mining waste disposal and air pollution. The dilemma of the coal industry is creating more supplementary functions for changing energy markets and the increase in demand for natural gas than anything else. The demands for coal comes from many sources. As population increases so does the domestic market, right now over 7,269 million tons (Mt) of hard coal are produced worldwide. As stated in the world coal association. The essentials market forces have molded the U.S. coal industry for decades and will continue to do so. The largest coal …show more content…

However, this does not refer to a set number but varies on the geological resource, the market price, and the cost of mining. The U.S. coal industry has endured an exceptional transformation over the last three decades. While in the early 1990’s the coal production had magnified, the number of operating mines and mines developed have been cut from 160,000 in the late 1980’s to 75,000 in 2000, according to data in NMA (2006b).
The general coal mining process involves the following stages: first, the study of all possibly cost-effective in all area including: coal seam to measure minable assets, ecological issues, profitable reserves, possible markets, and the risks; second, examination and selection of the mining strategy; third, obtaining the markets; fourth, emerging the mine; firth, the process of the removal of the coal; and finally, the neutralizing of the mine and circulating the property for post-mining use. Although, the process is important the technical factors are the main concern; it is all in the thickness, depth, inclination of the coal seam, and the surface of the …show more content…

The essential economic restrictions are the virtual costs of mining coal by surface or underground methods with the cost relating with any particular land use limitations, the cost of removing the material above the coal seam in the surface method, and the price of coal.
Surface and underground mining
Surface mining consumes many benefits compared to underground mining. In overall, coal retrieval is high 85% to 90%, contrast to 40% to 70% in underground mines. However, the production of surface mines is commonly higher than underground mines. Not only is the retrieval higher but also the health and safety standards for surface mining are usually better than those of underground mining. underground

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