1c+Coal+--+Obtaining+the+Resource


 * **On The Earth Coal’s location** ||
 * __ Continent __ |||| __ Countries on that Continent __ ||
 * North America || Mexico, USA, Canada  ||
 * Australia |||||| New Zealand  ||
 * South America |||||| Venezuela, Peru, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia  ||
 * Africa |||||| Botswana, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Mozambique, Tanzania, Congo Nigeria, Algeria  ||
 * Asia |||||| Russia, Iran, Pakistan, India, Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Philippines, Indonesia  ||
 * Europe |||||| Spain, France, Germany, Slovakia, Chez Republic, Netherlands, United Kingdom, Siberia, Poland, Greece, Bulgaria, Romania, Turkey, Ukraine   By Joseph  ||


 * Coal can be found all over the world. It can be found on six different continents, every continent except Antarctica.


 * The top coal producing states in America are: Wyoming, West Virginia, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Montana, Texas, Indiana, Illinois, and Colorado.


 * One billion tons of coal comes from The United States. The United States have the some of the largest coal reserves in the world.

How Is Coal Obtained Coal is mined in two ways __ Surface mining __
 * Surface is used to get 70% of United States coal and 40% of the world’s coal.


 * When surface mining, coal is usually found between 100ft. and 200ft. below the surface of the Earth (30 to 60 meters).


 * Nearly all the surface mining done is strip mining which is a type of surface mining; in fact it’s the only type of surface mining.


 * Strip mining is a more mechanized type of mining. It requires machines bigger than houses to dig up the coal. Some of these machines like diggers and excavators do most of this work. These machines remove the coal in an odd pattern. This pattern usually moves in a ribbon like movement.

__ Underground mining __


 * Underground mining is 200 feet and below.
 * This type of mining has more human labor than strip mining but it still uses lots of machines. Machines like cutters that act like giant drills cut through the ground and through the underground walls that are carved to keep up the mine. There are three types of underground mines, shaft mines, slope mines, and drift mines[[image:dieterichpm/Diffrent_coal_mines.jpg width="524" height="308" align="right" caption="Types of coal mines from google images.com"]].


 * Each mine has two passages to get out.


 * One is for the miners and their equipment.


 * One is for delivering coal out of the mines.

In some drift mines, an elevator sends the coal miners down to the mine. These elevators are called mine shafts.

__ More facts about coal mining __
 * Another thing you need to mine underground is pillars to hold up the higher layers of ground that you are under when mining.
 * The way that you get the coal out of underground mines is that send it up on a conveyer belt to the surface
 * or send it up on a small railroad track.


 * In the end, the mined coal is sent to a preparation plant to purify the coal and remove ash, rock, and sulfur.

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