06:32
Faizan
In terms of mining products, there's nothing glamorous about coal. It isn't particularly useful. It doesn't sparkle, so you can't cut it and polish it like diamonds. It isn't metallic, so you can't make it into steel and use it as a cornerstone of industry. It isn't shiny or malleable or conductive, so you can't beat it thin and use it as a decorative coating on statues, or to conduct electricity.
Nor is that the worst of it. Coal is typically ugly and black (although it can be brown), resembling nothing so much as a dark piece of rock that leaves black smudges on everything it touches.
It's also relatively cheap - and that means to make any decent profit, it has to be mined on a large scale. This, paradoxically, means that successful coal mining operations can be expensive to set up and run, with low margins and little leeway for errors.
And the mining itself isn't easy. The work is known to be hard and dangerous; coal dust, as well as leading to crippling lung disease if breathed in over an extended period, also has a tendency to spontaneously explode. Additionally, given that much of the work occurs deep underground, while tragic, it isn't necessarily surprising that every year, on a global basis, hundreds of people die in coal mining incidents (although Australia's record in this regard isn't as bad).
All that effort and danger wouldn't be worthwhile if it wasn't for one critical characteristic of coal: it burns. In fact, it burns very well, yielding significantly more energy than equivalent weights of wood.
Because of this, humanity has actively sought out and used coal for fuel for thousands of years. In Britain, it was used in funeral pyres during the Bronze age, five thousand years ago. In Australia, there's evidence that Aborigines used coal for cooking fires for hundreds (if not thousands) of years before the first European settlers arrived.
Since the industrial revolution it has been subjected to wider usage, first as a fuel for steam engines, and later as a source of electricity and in metal-refinement processes.
Today, coal is the source of 85% of Australia's electricity. But as the fourth largest producer of coal (behind China, USA and India), Australia produces far more than it needs; more than half of it - equating to more than 250 million tonnes annually - is exported.
This makes Australia the world's largest exporter of coal, with Japan taking the bulk of the product (40%), followed by Korea (16%), with significant amounts going to China, India and Taiwan. It's Australia's second-largest export earner behind iron ore, worth about $47 billion in 2011.
Nor is that the worst of it. Coal is typically ugly and black (although it can be brown), resembling nothing so much as a dark piece of rock that leaves black smudges on everything it touches.
It's also relatively cheap - and that means to make any decent profit, it has to be mined on a large scale. This, paradoxically, means that successful coal mining operations can be expensive to set up and run, with low margins and little leeway for errors.
And the mining itself isn't easy. The work is known to be hard and dangerous; coal dust, as well as leading to crippling lung disease if breathed in over an extended period, also has a tendency to spontaneously explode. Additionally, given that much of the work occurs deep underground, while tragic, it isn't necessarily surprising that every year, on a global basis, hundreds of people die in coal mining incidents (although Australia's record in this regard isn't as bad).
All that effort and danger wouldn't be worthwhile if it wasn't for one critical characteristic of coal: it burns. In fact, it burns very well, yielding significantly more energy than equivalent weights of wood.
Because of this, humanity has actively sought out and used coal for fuel for thousands of years. In Britain, it was used in funeral pyres during the Bronze age, five thousand years ago. In Australia, there's evidence that Aborigines used coal for cooking fires for hundreds (if not thousands) of years before the first European settlers arrived.
Since the industrial revolution it has been subjected to wider usage, first as a fuel for steam engines, and later as a source of electricity and in metal-refinement processes.
Today, coal is the source of 85% of Australia's electricity. But as the fourth largest producer of coal (behind China, USA and India), Australia produces far more than it needs; more than half of it - equating to more than 250 million tonnes annually - is exported.
This makes Australia the world's largest exporter of coal, with Japan taking the bulk of the product (40%), followed by Korea (16%), with significant amounts going to China, India and Taiwan. It's Australia's second-largest export earner behind iron ore, worth about $47 billion in 2011.
Posted in: business
