In today’s industrial world, coal mining plays an important role in various countries. The coal is extracted from the ground by using the process of coal mining. It is mainly used for generating electricity. The coal can be highly used in the steel and cement industries for the production of cement and extraction of iron from iron ore. The mining process can be done under two methods. There are underground mining or surface mining. Nowadays, most of the modern mining techniques are available to reach coal easily. Let see the various process included in the coal mining, mentioned in the given below information:
Methods to extract the coal:
The coal miners can use the two primary methods for extracts the coal from the earth. There are surface mining and underground mining.
Surface mining:
If the coal is present in 200 feet underground means, the coal miner prefers the surface mining methods. The larger machines are used in surface mining to remove the layers of rock and topsoil. Mountaintop removal is also a form of surface mining, where the top of mountains has to be removed to find the coal seams. The miners have to use the best mining tires for extracting the coal. Once the coal is extracted from the ground, the disturbed area will be filled with the topsoil for planting the trees and grass. The cost of the surface mining is effective, when compared with the underground mining.
Underground mining:
Sometimes, underground mining is also called as deep mining, which is used to extract the coal from several hundred feet under the surface. Sometimes, the underground mines have to take place in the thousands of feet under the surface. In that situation, the miners can travel through the small trains to get into the coal. At the same time, they need some larger machines to dig out the coal from the ground.
Coal processing:
If the miner removes the coal from the ground, they send it to the preparation plant, which is present near the mining site. During that process, the coal is cleaned to remove the dirt, rocks, sulfur, ash and some other unwanted materials. This process also helps to enhance the heating value of the coal.
Coal transporting:
The coal transporting mainly concentrates on the best mining tires. Once the core is removed from the ground, it has been processed and transferred to the consumers. The coal transportation cost is more expensive than the mining cost. Transportation can be done in different ways.
- Nearly, 70% of the coal is transferred through the trains.
- The coal is transferred through the ships, the consumers who are all present in the other countries.
- The coal transportation of barges can be done on lakes and rivers.
These are all the things included in the coal mining and transportation. The miners have to pay more attention to the mining process while compared with transportation. The mining process is called as pillar extraction or second workings.