Canadian Coal Deposits -Luise Vogler.pdf

Canadian Coal Deposits Luise Vogler TU Bergakademie Freiberg, Germany Abstract. In Canada and around the world you can find coal as a valuable and abundant fossil fuel resource. The origin goes back to 300 million years ago. It was a carbon-rich mineral resource which was formed as organic plant matter decayed and compressed. It was altered by geological processes over millions of years. It is a black or brownish-black sedimentary rock that is extracted from the ground by open-pit surface mining or underground mining. Today, coal remains an enormously important fuel because it generates the largest single source of electricity worldwide. It also helps produce over 70 % of the world`s steel and is used by other industrial processes like cement manufacturing. Introduction Today Canada is richly loaded with coal. Its coal resources are very distributed and have diverse attributes. The diversity in the nation`s coal resources puts Canada in a strong position to respond positively to coal developement opportunities as national and international coal requirements change. Coal-bearing strata are found in many areas of Canada, from coastal British Columbia in the west, to the Atlantic Provinces in the east, and in Northern Canada (Figure 1). These strata range in age from Devonian to Tertiary, and the coals range in rank from lignitic to anthracitic. 2 Luise Vogler Fig.1. Distribution of coal in Canada (modified after Smith, 1989). The nature of coal occurrences and characteristics vary from region to region. These differences result from the varying types of vegetation from which the coal originated; the depths of storage, and the temperatures and pressures at those depths; as well as the length of time the coal has been forming in the deposit. The varying amount of mineral matter in a coal deposit may also have a significant effect on its properties and classification. The major coal resources in eastern Canada are of Late Carboniferous age, like th