COAL MINING

extraction of deposits from the surface of the Earth and from the underground. Coal is the most abundant fossil fuel on Earth. Its predominant use has always been for producing heat energy. It was the basic energy source that fueled the Industrial Revolution of the 18th and 19th centuries, and the industrial growth of that era in turn supported the large-scale exploitation of coal deposits. Since the mid-20th century, coal has yielded its place to petroleum and natural gas as the principal energy supplier of the world. The mining of coal from surface and underground deposits today is a highly productive, mechanized operation. Additional reading Kristina Lindbergh and Barry Provorse, CoalA Contemporary Energy Story, rev. ed. (1980), provides nontechnical information on coal geology, mining, transportation, and utilization. Roy D. Merritt, Coal Exploration, Mine Planning, and Development (1986), offers details on geology and exploration. All aspects of mining engineering, including coal mining, are discussed in Howard L. Hartman, Introductory Mining Engineering (1987); Howard L. Hartman (ed.), SME Mining Engineering Handbook, 2nd ed., 2 vol. (1992); and Bruce A. Kennedy (ed.), Surface Mining, 2nd ed. (1990). Robert Stefanko, Coal Mining Technology: Theory and Practice (1983), is a standard reference for underground coal-mine operating practices in the United States. P.T. Luckie, Coal Preparation, ch. 6 in Shymal K. Majumdar and E. Willard Miller (eds.), Pennsylvania Coal: Resources, Technology, and Utilization (1983), is a readable, well-illustrated, nontechnical primer on coal-preparation techniques. Joseph Leonard III and Byron C. Hardinge (eds.), Coal Preparation, 5th ed. (1991), is a handbook on coal-preparation plant operations and design for use by engineers. W.G. Waters II and Dean H. Uyeno, Export Coal Logistics: Management, Models, and Moving Coal (1987), provides in-depth coverage of methods, models, and costs of coal transportation. Raja Venkat Ramani