What Ores Are Considered to Be Non-Renewable Resources?

When asked to think of coal mining, what comes to mind? A mountain with a hole cut into the side of it with a set of railroad tracks disappearing into it? Maybe an old mine car or two full of some rocks or coal, with a pickaxe and shovel leaning against it. A few guys with hard hats covered in a black powder coming walking out of the mine pushing a car or two full of coal. The technology has advanced but the process is basically still the same as well as the outcome. Coal is retrieved from underground and taken to factories to be burnt to create electricity or to fuel the steel mills.

The process to mine the coal is quite complex. First, surveyors are called on site to document the layout of the land so that in can be restored to

Coal may be overshadowed by petroleum in Texas, but it's still here. Pennsylvanian age bituminous coal was mined in North Central Texas in sizable quantities. Bituminous coal can also be found in Cretaceous age rocks in near Eagle Pass and in the Trans-Pecos region. But the major player in Texas coal is Lignite, even though it is a lower grade coal. The Texas lignite comes from vegetative material deposited around 50 million years ago in coastal lagoon type environments, near rivers and their deltas. The material was buried before it could decay, so it sat there and was buried under more and more sediments. The enormous

Wyoming accounts for a major percentage of coal mined all over the United States. Wyoming's Powder River Basin holds the eight largest coal mines of the United States. Wyoming obtains more than 90% of the state’sdomestic coal from Wyoming. The state is also good in the production of natural gas. Due to the excess usage of fuels, the people of the state are facing issues such as watery eyes, breath shortnessand bleeding noses due to the rise in the ozone levels.The Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality warned the people with respiratory symptoms to avoid extended outdoor activities (Reynolds, 2013).

“The coal industry has helped fuel this nation for 150 years, and coal can be used to heat our homes, power our economy, and protect our nation for at least another 150 years if we continue to use it.”- Tim Murphy. Coal has an interesting history in West Virginia, which has contributed significantly to the improvement and livelihood of West Virginians since its first discovery, which is now Boone County in 1742 by Peter Salley, more than a century before West Virginia, became a state. The coal industry has played a major role in the state’s economic, political and community history. The industry has also been a center of debate and the impact of unfounded criticism, giving rise to battles in the arenas of labor, environment and safety.

Western Virginia and the Appalachian Plateau have an abundance of coal in their land. Mostly it is from million year old decomposed plant materials that have created 76 distance coal beds; about half of these are currently being commercially mined. Two fifths of the coal produced in VA is exported out of state. The remaining coal is used to produce energy in local coal burning power plants. Locally sourced coal makes up a little bit over 37% percent of all of Virginia’s power (Sites, 2014).

These deposits were formed from vegetation that once grew along the edge of a brackish sea. It took about 10 feet of vegetation to ultimately form about 1 foot of coal. All of the coal found in eastern Kansas is bituminous, which is slightly softer and able to produces less energy than anthracite coal (Sefton).

Sub-bituminous coal is a mixture of Lignite and Bituminous. This coal has a lower sulfur content which makes it a popular choice as a cleaner burning fuel for electricity and space heating. Bituminous coal is black in color and has the second highest heating value. This coal is used primarily in electric power generation, as well as heat and power applications in the manufacturing sector. Anthracite coal is a glossy black coal. This coal has the highest heating value out of all the coal types. Anthracite is the hardest coal and is used for home heating and steel production. Canada has large coal deposits and it is their largest most abundant fossil fuel. Canada has all four types of coal which more than 90% of the deposits are located in the western provinces. Canada has an estimated 6.6 billion tons of coal that could be mined. Mining coal in Canada takes place across four different provinces: British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Nova Scotia. In these provinces there are a total of 24 coal producing mines. British Columbia is the leading province with 10 mines in operation. The province of Alberta has a total of 9 coal mines, while Saskatchewan has 3 and Nova Scotia has 2 mines in operation. Coal mining in Canada is done by surface mining. There are two different styles of surface mining which are strip mining or open pit mining (CAC, 2013).

Coal happens to be a very important tool in the factory business. Many different places in the world use coal as an energy source, not only the U.S. These are just some of the reason why we still use coal. Coal is extremely cheap and very abundant. But some disadvantages of using coal is the mass amounts of co2 pollution it causes.

The amount of a natural resource that a region or deposit has is classified either as a reserve or as a resource. Reserves of natural resources are the volume of natural resource that is economically and commercially exploitable with available technology. Resources are the total volume of natural resources present in the system or region, but may not be exploitable with current technology or economic evaluations. Resources may turn into reserves and reserves may turn into resources, dependent upon current market prices. (Owen, Inderwildi & King, 2010).

The U.S is a top net exporter of coal, meaning the U.S produces enough coal not only for its use but enough where it can supply the rest of the world as well. We use most of our own coal, however, some power plants along the Gulf Coast and the Atlantic Ocean find it less costly to import coal from nearby countries than it is to import our own coal to those locations (“U.S Energy Information Administration”). Coal is a naturally-occurring resource formed by deposits of decaying plants from long ago which have undergone extreme heat and pressure. Surface mining and deep underground mining are the two most basic forms of mining coal. Surface mining is only economic when the deposits are near the surface, and usually 90% of the coal deposit is recovered. When there is an abundance of soil and rocks, it is broken up by using explosives. The resulting debris is then removed by draglines or by shovel and truck. Once the coal is exposed, it is drilled, fractured, and carefully mined in strips. Lastly, the coal is loaded onto large trucks, shipped to the coal preparation plant, and then used or stored (“Coal Mining”). When mining deep underground, there are two methods that can be used, “room-and-pillar” and “longwall” mining. In room-and-pillar mining, miners cut a network of ‘rooms’ into the coal and leave behind ‘pillars’ of coal to support the roof of the mine (See Figure 2). These pillars can be up to 40% of the

Coal is a fossil fuel along oil and gas. They all contain hydrogen and carbon, also known as hydrocarbons. Their Group name derives from them being formed in the Earth’s crust millions of years ago. This fossil fuels come from deep underground, throughout centuries when Pre-historic

Coal is a hard, black colored rock-like substance. It is made up of carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, and varying amount of sulphur. Coal was form as decomposition took place in the absence of oxygen and much of the hydrogen content of the matter was eroded away, leaving a material rich in carbon. The material was compressed over the years by sand and dirt, leaving the form of a carbon known as coal. The different types of coals are Anthracite, bituminous, lignite, peat, coke, and charcoal. Coal is mined out of the ground and used to produce energy. However, they are many deaths, injuries, and sickness involved in mining coal.

After the coal has been removed form the earth, it is still not ready for use; it must first be refined. Coal must first be separated form foreign materials, for example other minerals, to be considered useful to us. One way of doing this is called coal washing. The coal is first crushed into smaller pieces, and then a liquid is used to separate the coal based on density. Coal that is higher in density harbors more ash, so is left behind, whereas low-density coal has contains little ash and is more desirable. Another process to separate coal from foreign materials is call dry-shaling, which works without the use of liquid. After being separated, coal can be processed into coke, and eventually steel. When coal is transported, it can be by means of truck, train, or ship, and can go nearly anywhere. Truck and train transportation are the cheapest forms, particularly train if you are shipping a great amount, and ships are used for overseas transport.

Lignite is the softest coal. Further compression and aging caused the lignite coal to change into bituminous coal. Bituminous is a soft, black, brittle material that is extremely flammable and produces a lot of ash and sulfur when burned. This is the type of coal that is mined in the Appalachian Mountains, Great Plains, and the Colorado Plateau. Heat and pressure then turn bituminous into anthracite. Anthracite is the final stage of coal, and is composed almost entirely of carbon. Lignite and bituminous coal are sedimentary, while anthracite is metamorphic. Anthracite is only found where pressure and heat were very great. It doesn’t produce as much heat as bituminous coal, but it burns longer without as much residue. There are anthracite fields in Pennsylvania and Great Britain (U.S Energy Information Administration).