List the cities where coal is mined. The largest coal deposits in Russia and the world

coal industry is engaged in the extraction and primary processing (enrichment) of hard and brown coal and is the largest industry in terms of the number of workers and the cost of production fixed assets.

Russian coal

Russia has various types of coal - brown, black, anthracite - and occupies one of the leading places in the world in terms of reserves. The total geological reserves of coal amount to 6421 billion tons, of which 5334 billion tons are standard. More than 2/3 of the total reserves are coal. Technological fuel - coking coal - is 1/10 of the total amount of hard coal.

Coal distribution throughout the country uneven. 95% reserves account for eastern regions, of which more than 60% - to Siberia. The main part of the general geological reserves of coal is concentrated in the Tunguska and Lena basins. In terms of industrial coal reserves, the Kansk-Achinsk and Kuznetsk basins are distinguished.

Coal mining in Russia

In terms of coal production, Russia ranks fifth in the world (after China, the USA, India and Australia), 3/4 of the coal produced is used to produce energy and heat, 1/4 - in metallurgy and the chemical industry. A small part is exported, mainly to Japan and the Republic of Korea.

Open pit coal mining in Russia is 2/3 of the total volume. This method of extraction is considered the most productive and cheapest. However, this does not take into account the severe disturbances of nature associated with it - the creation of deep quarries and extensive overburden dumps. Mine production is more expensive and has a high accident rate, which is largely determined by the depreciation of mining equipment (40% of it is outdated and requires urgent modernization).

Russian coal basins

The role of this or that coal basin in the territorial division of labor depends on the quality of the coal, the size of the reserves, the technical and economic indicators of extraction, the degree of preparedness of the reserves for industrial exploitation, the size of the extraction, and the peculiarities of the transport and geographical position. Together, these conditions stand out sharply interdistrict coal bases— The Kuznetsk and Kansko-Achinsk basins, which together account for 70% of coal production in Russia, as well as the Pechora, Donetsk, Irkutsk-Cheremkhovo and South Yakutsk basins.

Kuznetsk basin, located in the south of Western Siberia in the Kemerovo region, is the main coal base of the country and provides half of the all-Russian coal production. High quality coal, including coking coal, is deposited here. Almost 12% of mining is carried out by open pit mining. The main centers are Novokuznetsk, Kemerovo, Prokopyevsk, Anzhero-Sudzhensk, Belovo, Leninsk-Kuznetsky.

Kansko-Achinsk basin located in the south of Eastern Siberia in the Krasnoyarsk Territory along the Trans-Siberian Railway and provides 12% of coal production in Russia. The lignite of this basin is the cheapest in the country, since it is mined in an open pit. Due to the low quality of coal, it is not very transportable, and therefore powerful thermal power plants operate on the basis of the largest mines (Irsha-Borodinsky, Nazarovsky, Berezovsky).

Pechora basin is the largest in the European part and provides 4% of coal production in the country. It is remote from the most important industrial centers and is located in the Arctic; mining is carried out only by the mine method. Coking coal is mined in the northern part of the basin (Vorkuta and Vorgashorskoye deposits), while in the southern part (Intinskoye deposit), mainly energy coal is mined. The main consumers of Pechora coal are the Cherepovets Metallurgical Plant, enterprises of the North-West, the Center and the Central Chernozem Region.

Donetsk basin in Rostov region is the eastern part of the coal basin located in Ukraine. This is one of the oldest coal mining areas. The mining method of extraction led to the high cost of coal. Coal production is declining every year and in 2007 the basin produced only 2.4% of the total Russian production.

Irkutsk-Cheremkhovo basin in the Irkutsk region provides a low cost of coal, since mining is carried out in an open way and provides 3.4% of coal in the country. Due to the great distance from large consumers, it is used at local power plants.

South Yakutsk basin(3.9% of the total Russian production) is at Far East. It has significant reserves of energy and process fuels, and all mining is carried out by an open method.

The promising coal basins include the Lensky, Tungussky and Taimyrsky, located beyond the Yenisei to the north of the 60th parallel. They occupy vast areas in the poorly developed and sparsely populated areas of Eastern Siberia and the Far East.

In parallel with the creation of coal bases of inter-district significance, there was a wide development of local coal basins, which made it possible to bring coal production closer to the areas of its consumption. At the same time, in the western regions of Russia, coal production is declining (the Moscow Basin), and in the eastern regions it is increasing sharply (deposits of the Novosibirsk Region, the Trans-Baikal Territory, Primorye.

Coal mining as an industrial sector became widespread at the beginning of the 20th century and to this day continues to be one of the most profitable types of mining of mineral deposits. Coal is mined commercially all over the world.

Contrary to popular belief, this fossil is used not only as a quality fuel. In the middle of the twentieth century coal industry gave a powerful impetus to the development of scientific research on the extraction of hydrocarbons from minerals.

Where is mining

The largest coal-producing countries are China, the USA, and India. ranks 6th in the world ranking in terms of its production, although it is in the top three in terms of reserves.

Brown coal, hard coal (including coking coal) and anthracite are mined in Russia. The main coal-mining regions in Russia are the Kemerovo region, Krasnoyarsk region, Irkutsk region, Chita, Buryatia, Komi Republic. There is coal in the Urals, the Far East, Kamchatka, Yakutia, Tula and Kaluga regions. There are 16 coal basins in Russia. One of the largest - more than half of Russia's hard coal is mined there.

How coal is mined

Depending on the depth of the coal seam, its area, shape, thickness, various geographical and environmental factors, a certain method of coal mining is selected. The main methods include the following:

• mine;
• developments in a coal quarry;
• hydraulic.

In addition, there is open-pit coal mining, provided that the coal seam lies at a depth of no more than one hundred meters. But this method is very similar in form to quarry coal mining.

mine method

This method is used from great depths and has an undeniable advantage over open methods of coal mining: coal at great depths is of better quality and practically does not contain impurities.

To access the coal seams, horizontal or vertical tunnels (adits and mines) are drilled. There are known cases of coal mining at a depth of up to 1500 meters (Gvardeyskaya, Shakhterskaya-Glubokaya mines).

Underground coal mining is one of the most difficult specializations due to a number of dangers:

1. Constant threat of groundwater breakthrough into the mine shaft.
2. The constant threat of a breakthrough of associated gases into the mine shaft. In addition to possible suffocation, a special danger is explosions and fires.
3. Accidents due to high temperature at great depths (up to 60 degrees), careless handling of equipment, etc.

In this way, approximately 36% of the world's coal reserves are extracted from the earth's interior, which is 2625.7 million tons.

open way

According to their classification, developments in a coal quarry belong to an open-pit method of coal mining, since they do not require drilling of mines and adits for great depth.

This method of mining consists in undermining and removing overburden (a layer of excess rocks above coal deposits) from the mining site. After that, with the help of excavators, water guns, bulldozers, crushers, draglines and conveyors, the rock is crushed and transferred further.

This method of coal mining is considered less safe than closed (mine). But he also has certain risk factors associated with careless handling of equipment and large-sized vehicles, the possibility of poisoning with exhaust gases and substances accompanying machine activity.

A significant disadvantage this method considered to cause great harm environment due to the removal of a large area of ​​the land layer and its accompanying natural elements.

open way It is considered one of the most common in the world - it produces more than 55% of coal per year, which is 4102.1 million tons.

It was first used in the Soviet Union in the 30s of the twentieth century. It involves the extraction of coal in deep mines, while transporting coal to the surface occurs with the help of water jets under tension. This method made it possible to use the lack of underground coal mining - groundwater - to their advantage.

IN Lately hydraulic coal mining is considered one of the most respectable methods. It is able to replace the laborious and dangerous process of coal mining by miners, instead of which water will act as a destructive and lifting force.

The disadvantages of this method of coal mining include the following:

• constant contact of working tools and mechanisms with water and rock;
• certain difficulties in replacing or repairing working equipment;
• dependence of the process of coal mining on the thickness, angle of inclination and hardness of the rock.

This method produces approximately 7.5% of coal annually, which is 545.5 million tons.

Today, coal is one of the most important minerals.

This resource is formed naturally, has huge reserves and a lot of useful properties.

What is coal and what does it look like?

The construction of a mine is a very expensive investment, but over time, all costs are fully paid off. When coal is mined, other resources also come to the surface.

There is a possibility of extracting precious metals and rare earth elements, which can later be sold and receive additional profit.

Oil is practically the most precious resource and the main source of fuel today. However, not a single company or country that extracts coal will neglect its extraction in the name of oil, because solid fuel is also of great importance and high value.

Formation of hard coal

Coal in nature is formed by changing the surface relief. Tree branches, plants, leaves and other natural remains that have not had time to rot are saturated with moisture from the swamps, which is why they are converted into peat.

Then sea water enters the land, when it leaves, it also leaves a layer of sediment. After the rivers make their own adjustments, the land becomes swampy, re-forms or covers the soil. Therefore, the composition hard coal highly dependent on age.

Coal is medium in age between brown, the youngest, and anthracite, the oldest.

Types of coal, their composition and properties

There are several types of coal:

• long-flame;
• gas;
• fatty;
• coke;
• weakly caking;
• skinny.

Also common are species consisting of several, the so-called mixed, with the properties of two groups.

Coal is black in color, hard, layered, easily destroyed structure, has shiny inclusions. The combustible properties are quite high, since the material is used as a fuel.

Consider physical characteristics:

1. Density (or specific gravity) varies greatly (the maximum can reach 1500 kg/m³).
2. The specific heat capacity is 1300 J/kg*K.
3. The combustion temperature is 2100°C (when processing 1000°C).

Coal deposits in Russia

On the Russian territory contains about a third of the world's reserves.

Deposits of coal and oil shale in Russia (click to enlarge)

The largest coal deposit in Russia is Elginskoye. It is located in the region of Yakutia.

Reserves according to approximate calculations are more than 2 billion tons.

The relief, close to the Kuznetsk coal basin (Kuzbass), was severely damaged due to large-scale resource extraction.

The largest coal deposits in the world

Map of coal deposits in the world (click to enlarge)

In the United States, the most famous coal basin is the Illinois. The total reserve of deposits in this field totals 365 billion tons.

Coal mining

Coal is currently mined in three fundamental ways. Such as:

• career method;
• mining through adits;
• mining method.

The quarry mining method is used when coal seams lie on the surface, about a hundred meters deep and above.

Quarrying involves simply digging the earth or sand hole from which mining is carried out, usually in such cases the coal seam is thick enough to make it easier to extract.

Adits mean wells with a large angle of inclination. According to it, all mined minerals are delivered to the top, while there is no need to use serious equipment or dig a hollow.

Typically, deposits in such places are of small thickness and are not buried particularly deep. Therefore, the method of mining through adits allows you to quickly produce mining without much cost.

Extraction through mines is the most common method of mining, at the same time the most productive, but at the same time dangerous. Mines are drilled to a great depth, reaching several hundred meters. However, this requires a permit confirming the rationale for such large-scale work, evidence of the presence of deposits.

At times, mines can reach a kilometer or more in depth, and stretch for several kilometers in length, forming interconnected webs of corridors underground. In the 20th century, even settlements were formed around the mines and small towns where miners lived with their families.

It is precisely because of the mining conditions that work in the mines is considered very difficult and dangerous, because a huge number of times the mines collapsed, burying dozens or even hundreds of people working there.

The use of coal

Coal is used in the most various fields. It is widely used as solid fuel(main purpose), in metallurgy and in the chemical industry, plus many other components are produced from it.

It is from coal that some aromatic substances, metals, chemicals are produced, more than 360 other processed products are obtained.

In turn, the substances produced from it have market value ten times higher, the most expensive method is considered to be the method of processing coal into liquid fuel.

To produce 1 ton of liquid fuel, it will be necessary to process 2-3 tons of coal. All industrial waste obtained during processing is often sent to the production of building materials.

Conclusion

There are many coal deposits on earth that are actively developed to this day. In biology lessons in the 5th grade and even earlier, in the lessons of natural history in the second grade, children get acquainted with this concept. In this paper, we briefly repeated the main facts about coal - origin, formula, grades, chemical composition and use, extraction and much more.

Coal is one of the most important resources widely used in industry. However, you should still be careful when the natural course of substances is disturbed, because the development violates the relief and gradually depletes natural reserves.

Since ancient times, coal has been a source of energy for mankind, not the only one, but widely used. Sometimes it is compared to solar energy preserved in stone. It is burned to obtain heat for heating, heating water, converted into electricity at thermal stations, and used for smelting metals.

With the development of new technologies, people have learned to use coal not only to obtain energy by burning. The chemical industry has successfully mastered the production technology of rare metals - gallium and germanium. Composite carbon-graphite materials with a high carbon content, gaseous high-calorie fuel are extracted from it, and methods for the production of plastics are worked out. The lowest grade coal, its very fine fraction and coal dust are processed and which are excellent for heating as industrial premises as well as private houses. In total, with the help of chemical processing of coal, more than 400 types of products are produced, which can cost ten times more than the original product.

For several centuries, people have been actively using coal as a fuel for generating and converting energy, with the development of the chemical industry and the need for rare and valuable materials in other industries, the need for coal is increasing. Therefore, exploration of new deposits is being intensively carried out, quarries and mines, enterprises for processing raw materials are being built.

Briefly about the origin of coal

On our planet, many millions of years ago, vegetation flourished in a humid climate. Since then, 210 ... 280 million years have passed. For thousands of years, millions of years, billions of tons of vegetation died off, accumulated at the bottom of the swamps, covered with layers of sediment. Slow decomposition in an oxygen-free atmosphere under powerful pressure of water, sand, other rocks, sometimes at high temperatures due to the proximity of magma, led to the petrification of the layers of this vegetation, with a gradual transformation into coal of varying degrees of coalification.

The main Russian deposits and mining of hard coal

There are more than 15 trillion tons of coal reserves on the planet. The largest mineral extraction comes from hard coal, at about 0.7 tons per person, which is more than 2.6 billion tons per year. In Russia, coal is available in different regions. It has different characteristics, features and depth of occurrence. Here are the largest and most successfully developed coal basins:

The active use of Siberian and Far Eastern deposits limits their remoteness from industrial European regions. In the western part of Russia, coal is also mined with excellent performance: in the Pechersk and Donetsk coal basins. In the Rostov region, local deposits are being actively developed, the most promising of them is Gukovskoye. Processing of coal from these deposits produces high quality grades of coal - anthracites (AS and AO).

The main qualitative characteristics of hard coal

Different industries require different grades of coal. Its qualitative indicators vary over a wide range even for those that have the same marking and largely depend on the deposit. Therefore, enterprises, before purchasing coal, get acquainted with its physical characteristics:

According to the degree of enrichment, coal is divided into:

• - Concentrates (burned for heating in steam boilers and generating electricity);
• – Industrial products used in the metallurgical industry;
• - Sludge, in fact, it is a fine fraction (up to 6 mm) and dust after rock crushing. It is problematic to burn such fuel, therefore briquettes are formed from it, which have good performance characteristics and are used in domestic solid fuel boilers.

According to the degree of coalification:

• — Brown coal is partially formed bituminous coal. It has a low calorific value, crumbles during transportation and storage, has a tendency to spontaneous combustion;
• - Coal. It has many different brands (grades) with different characteristics. It has a wide area of ​​use: metallurgy, energy, housing and communal services, chemical industry, etc.
• — Anthracite is the highest quality form of hard coal.

Compared to peat and coal, the calorific value of coal is higher. Brown coal has the lowest calorific value, and anthracite has the highest. However, based on economic feasibility, in great demand uses ordinary coal. It has an optimal combination of price and specific heat of combustion.

There are a lot of different characteristics of coal, but not all of them can be important when choosing coal for heating. In this case, it is important to know just a few key parameters: ash content, humidity and specific heat capacity. The sulfur content may be important. The rest are required when selecting raw materials for processing. What is important to know when choosing coal is the size: how large pieces are offered to you. This data is encrypted in the brand name.

Size classification:

Classification by brands and their brief description:

Depending on the characteristics of coal, its brand, type and fraction, it is stored for different times. (There is a table in the article that shows the shelf life of coal depending on the deposit and brand).

Particular attention should be paid to the protection of coal during long-term storage (more than 6 months). In this case, a special coal shed or bunker is required, where the fuel will be protected from precipitation and direct sunlight.

Large piles of coal during long-term storage require temperature control, since in the presence of fines in combination with moisture and high temperature, they tend to ignite spontaneously. It is advisable to purchase Digital Thermometer and a thermocouple with a long cord, which is buried in the center of the coal pile. You need to check the temperature once or twice a week, because some grades of coal ignite spontaneously at very low temperatures: brown ones - at 40-60 ° C, the rest - 60-70 ° C. Rarely there are cases of spontaneous combustion of anthracites and semi-anthracites (in Russia such cases not registered).

Coal is a sedimentary rock that forms in the earth's seam. Coal is an excellent fuel. It is believed that this is the most ancient type of fuel used by our distant ancestors.

How coal is formed

For the formation of coal, a huge amount of plant matter is needed. And it is better if the plants accumulate in one place and do not have time to decompose completely. The ideal place for this is swamps. The water in them is poor in oxygen, which prevents the vital activity of bacteria.

Vegetation mass accumulates in swamps. Not having time to completely rot, it is compressed by the following soil deposits. This is how peat is obtained - the source material for coal. The next layers of soil, as it were, seal the peat in the ground. As a result, it is completely deprived of access to oxygen and water and turns into a coal seam. This process is lengthy. So, most of the modern reserves of coal were formed in the Paleozoic era, that is, more than 300 million years ago.

Characteristics and types of coal

(Brown coal)

The chemical composition of coal depends on its age.

The youngest species is brown coal. It lies at a depth of about 1 km. There is still a lot of water in it - about 43%. Contains a large amount of volatile substances. It ignites and burns well, but gives little heat.

Hard coal is a kind of "middling" in this classification. It occurs at depths up to 3 km. Since the pressure of the upper layers is greater, the water content in coal is less - about 12%, volatile substances - up to 32%, but carbon contains from 75% to 95%. It is also highly flammable, but burns better. And due to the small amount of moisture, it gives more heat.

Anthracite is an older breed. It occurs at depths of about 5 km. It has more carbon and almost no moisture. Anthracite is a solid fuel, it ignites poorly, but the specific heat of combustion is the highest - up to 7400 kcal / kg.

(Anthracite coal)

However, anthracite is not the final stage in the transformation of organic matter. When exposed to harsher conditions, coal transforms into shuntite. At higher temperatures, graphite is obtained. And when subjected to ultra-high pressure, coal turns into diamond. All these substances - from a plant to a diamond - are made of carbon, only the molecular structure is different.

In addition to the main "ingredients", the composition of coal often includes various "rocks". These are impurities that do not burn, but form slag. Contained in coal and sulfur, and its content is determined by the place of formation of coal. When burned, it reacts with oxygen to form sulfuric acid. The less impurities in the composition of coal, the higher its grade is valued.

Coal deposit

The place of occurrence of coal is called a coal basin. Over 3.6 thousand coal basins are known in the world. Their area occupies about 15% of the earth's land area. The largest percentage of deposits of the world's coal reserves in the United States - 23%. In second place - Russia, 13%. China closes the top three leading countries - 11%. The largest coal deposits in the world are located in the USA. This is the Appalachian coal basin, whose reserves exceed 1600 billion tons.

In Russia, the largest coal basin is Kuznetsk, in the Kemerovo region. The reserves of Kuzbass amount to 640 billion tons.

The development of deposits in Yakutia (Elginskoye) and in Tyva (Elegestskoye) is promising.

Coal mining

Depending on the depth of the coal, either a closed mining method or an open one is used.

Closed, or underground mining method. For this method, mine shafts and adits are built. Mine shafts are built if the depth of coal is 45 meters or more. A horizontal tunnel leads from it - an adit.

There are 2 closed mining systems: room and pillar mining and longwall mining. The first system is less economical. It is used only in cases where the discovered layers are thick. The second system is much safer and more practical. It allows you to extract up to 80% of the rock and evenly deliver coal to the surface.

The open method is used when the coal is shallow. To begin with, an analysis of the hardness of the soil is carried out, the degree of soil weathering and the layering of the covering layer are ascertained. If the ground above the coal seams is soft, the use of bulldozers and scrapers is sufficient. If the upper layer is thick, then excavators and draglines are brought in. A thick layer of hard rock lying above the coal is blown up.

The use of coal

The area of ​​use of coal is simply huge.

Sulfur, vanadium, germanium, zinc, and lead are extracted from coal.

Coal itself is an excellent fuel.

It is used in metallurgy for iron smelting, in the production of iron, steel.

The ash obtained after burning coal is used in the production of building materials.

From coal, after its special processing, benzene and xylene are obtained, which are used in the production of varnishes, paints, solvents, and linoleum.

By liquefying coal, a first-class liquid fuel is obtained.

Coal is the raw material for producing graphite. As well as naphthalene and a number of other aromatic compounds.

As a result of the chemical processing of coal, more than 400 types of industrial products are currently obtained.