ASSIGNMENT IN EARTH
SCIENCE
Coal
Coal
• Coal is a readily combustible black or
brownish-black sedimentary rock normally
occurring in rock strata in layers or veins called
coal beds. The harder forms, such as anthracite
coal, can be regarded as metamorphic rock
because of later exposure to elevated
temperature and pressure. Coal is composed
primarily of carbon along with variable quantities
of other elements, chiefly sulfur, hydrogen,
oxygen and nitrogen.
Methods of Extraction:
I. Surface or Opencast Mining
• When coal seams are near the surface
• Recovers greater proportion of coal deposit as
more coal seams are in the strata
• Can cover an area of many square kilometers
EQUIPMENT USED
COAL MINING
1. Draglines – large excavating machines used to remove
the overburden or layers of earth, rock and other
material covering a coal seam
2. Electric power shovels – used to remove overburden and
load coal
3. Huge bucket wheel excavators – also employed in the
overburden removal process
4. Trucks – used to haul both rock and coal from the
mine site
5. Sophisticated covered conveyor systems – to deliver
coal to nearby preparation plants and eventually on to
the customer
II. Underground or Deep Mining
•When coal seams are too deep
underground for opencast mining
•2 main methods of underground mining
1. Room-and-pillar – coal deposits are
mined by cutting a network of
“rooms” into the coal seams and
leaving behind “pillars” of coal to
support the roof of the mine
2. Longwall mining – involves the full
extraction of coal from a section of the
seam or “face” using mechanical
shearers
Coal
What is Coal?
Coal is a readily combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock normally occurring in
rock strata in layers or veins called coal beds. The harder forms, such as anthracite coal,
can be regarded as metamorphic rock because of later exposure to elevated
temperature and pressure. Coal is composed primarily of carbon along with variable
quantities of other elements, chiefly sulfur, hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen.
Coal begins as layers of plant matter accumulate at the bottom of a body of water. For the
process to continue the plant matter must be protected from biodegradation and
oxidization, usually by mud or acidic water. The wide shallow seas of the Carboniferous
period provided such conditions. This trapped atmospheric carbon in the ground in
immense peat bogs that eventually were covered over and deeply buried by sediments
under which they metamorphosed into coal. Over time, the chemical and physical
properties of the plant remains (believed to mainly have been fern-like species
antedating more modern plant and tree species) were changed by geological action to
create a solid material. Coal, a fossil fuel, is the largest source of energy for the
generation of electricity worldwide, as well as one of the largest worldwide
anthropogenic sources of carbon dioxide emissions. Gross carbon dioxide emissions from
coal usage are slightly more than those from petroleum and about double the amount
from natural gas. Coal is extracted from the ground by mining, either underground or in
open pits.
Coal
Cost of Mining
Its very expensive to produce coal. If you want to
produce it, you have to spend millions on drills and
also pay the costs of your company.
Coal
Coal Market Value
Despite its status as the most 'environmentally incorrect' source of energy, coal
provides 25% of the world's energy and generates about half of the electricity
in every state in the United States, except California. Coal plays a key role in
the production of steel, with approximately 70% of the global steel production
depending on coal as a source of energy. And the price of coal has been
soaring to record levels. Macquarie Bank expects metallurgical coal to reach
an average price of $150 per metric ton in 2008. Citicorp is even more bullish,
forecasting that the annual contract price for thermal coal will reach $100 per
metric ton in 2008, while the price of metallurgical coal may hit $200 per ton.
What's behind the bull market in coal? First, demand for coal is exploding.
In addition, in April, China officially announced it would close coal factories, a
125-mile perimeter around the Olympics site of Beijing between July 20 and
August 24, 2008, to reduce emissions, pollution, and smog during the Olympic
games.
Also, Australia, for years the world's leading exporter of coal, has also been
suffering from poor weather, which has disrupted coal production and
transportation in its crucial coal-producing state of Queensland.
Exploding demand combined with supply disruptions adds up to one thing: higher
prices for coal.
Coal
Dangers of Coal Mining
Coal dust is also a dangerous explosive. Today,
electronic sensors constantly monitor for
methane and for Black Damp, a mixture of
nitrogen and carbon dioxide that can cause
suffocation if sufficiently concentrated.
Another invisible hazard is lung disease
(pneumoconiosis or “Black Lung”) brought
about by breathing coal dust.
In every year from 1900 to 1945 more than 1,000 coal
miners were killed in mining accidents. In many years there
were more than 2,000 deaths, and, as noted above, in just
the month of December, 1907, there were more than 3,000
coal-mining deaths. In 1961 there were 293 deaths; in 1981
there were 153, and in 2001 there were 42. It sounds like
coal mining has gotten a lot safer, and no doubt it has. But
there are also far fewer coal miners in the United States
than there were in the first half of the 20th century, and
much mining today is done by the less dangerous open-pit
method. The effect of these factors on the number of mine
deaths is unknown. Suffice it to say that underground coal
mining remains one of the most dangerous occupations in
America, and it is even more dangerous in less developed
countries where safety regulations and enforcement are
more lax. Hundreds of miners die in explosions in China
each year. The death toll has also been high in Poland and
the Ukraine.
Manganese
Manganese
• Manganese is a chemical element, designated
by the symbol Mn. It has the atomic number
25. It is found as a free element in nature
(often in combination with iron), and in many
minerals. As a free element, manganese is a
metal with important industrial metal alloy
uses, particularly in stainless steels.
MANGANESE
MINING
Manganese ore mining consists of
digging tunnels or shafts into the
earth to reach buried ore deposits.
Initial mining process is similar to
coal underground mining. The
manganese ore produced from the
underground is processed in the
mine.
Manganese process mining flow chart:
Crushing and Screening Plant
The crushing and screening plant is used
for crushing, hamming and impacting
purposes. The plant allows the breakdown or crushing of manganese ore.
Crushing plants are static or mobile
assemblies containing a range of
equipment, such as a prescreener,
loading conveyor, intake hopper,
magnetic separator, crushing unit (jaw
crusher, cone crusher etc.), screens,
undersized conveyor and oversized
conveyor.
Crushing and Screening Plant
The purpose of the screen is to separate and
grade aggregates into different size fractions.
Screening equipment can be used to remove
contamination and large materials unsuitable for
further processing, or to produce specific
aggregate gradings. Screens can be mounted in
decks, or placed in series, such that the material
passing the first screen is further screened to
remove smaller particles.
Manganese
What is Manganese?
Excluding a small circle of technical specialists including metallurgists and
chemists, manganese is a little-known element.
Nevertheless, it's the fourth most used metal in terms of tonnage, being ranked
behind iron, aluminum, and copper. Today nearly 29 million tons of the ore if
being mined annually.
Manganese is a grayish-white metal. It is the twelfth most abundant element in
the earth's crust, but is only rarely found in concentrations high enough to form
a manganese ore deposit. Among some 300 minerals containing manganese,
only about a dozen are of mining significance. Manganese has numerous
applications which impact on our daily lives as consumers. Objects made of
steel, portable batteries, and aluminum beverage cans all require
manganese for production. In each case manganese plays a vital role in
improving the properties of the alloys and compounds involved in each
specific application.
Manganese is an essential ingredient to iron and steel production. In fact,
nearly 95% of the world's total annual production of manganese is directly
allocated to the iron and steel industry to purify iron and to make alloys.
In alloys, manganese increases the durability and corrosion resistance of iron
and steel and makes steel more malleable when forged.
Manganese
Cost of Mining
Mining for minerals is expensive. But it’s
well worth it. It is very expensive since
there are many expensive things you
need to keep an eye on. These things
are employees’ salaries, drills, taxes,
and equipment.
Manganese
Manganese Market Value
A small group of hi-tech startups is about to take a major chunk out of a $297 billion/year
market. Heavy demand for iron ore is back, coming mainly from developing economies
like China and India. This has created the biggest bull market for manganese ever in
recent years. And, with China's seemingly insatiable hunger for steel expected to
continue, it can be assumed that the demand for manganese to go even higher.
Analysts have predicted that the steel demand will grow by 2.2 trillion pounds this year.
That means huge demands for manganese and huge profits for producers. One
producer, BHP Billiton [NYSE: BHP], has already cashed in on the rally. In 2005 share prices
increased nearly 40%. Another firm, French producer Eramet [EPA: EUR], has also cashed
in on the bull market. Eramet shares have increased 72% in the past 12 months.
(Note: Both of these companies also produce several other alloys but have a significant stake
in the manganese industry.)
Current estimates of world manganese reserves including low grade ore, reach several
billion tons.
Manganese
Dangers of Manganese Mining
While there is very little in the literature about criminal or accidental
manganese poisoning, manganese ores and their industrial applications
give rise to a number of cases of occupational poisoning. The historical
background of the condition has already been reviewed in a previous
paper (Rodier and Rodier, 1949) but it should be noted that this
occupational disease has been recognized since 1837 when Couper of
Glasgow observed the first cases among five manganese ore crushers.
He described a series of nervous phenomena: muscular weakness,
paraplegia, tremor of the extremities, a tendency to lean forward while
walking, whispering speech, and salivation.
Since then a number of writers have made further observations and
recognized manganese as a poison affecting the central nervous system.
It is less well known than other metallic poisons. It continues to be rare
since only a limited number of workers come in contact with manganese
in a dangerous form. The symptoms, which progress as a rule to total
disablement, render it one of the most serious occupational hazards. It
poses important social problems, as much concerning the rehabilitation
of partially incapacitated laborers, as the care of the sick man and his
family by the community.
Phosphate
PHOSPHATE
• A phosphate, an inorganic chemical, is a
salt of phosphoric acid. In organic
chemistry, a phosphate, or
organophosphate, is an ester of phosphoric
acid. Organic phosphates are important in
biochemistry and biogeochemistry or
ecology. Inorganic phosphates are mined to
obtain phosphorus for use in agriculture
and industry.[1][2][3] At elevated
temperatures in the solid state, phosphates
can condense to form pyrophosphates
PHOSPHATE MINING
PROCESS OF PHOSPHATE
MINING
Flow Chart:
The process of mining phosphate begins with
a dragline that removes the top layer of soil.
The phosphate is naturally occurring in a
matrix layer of sand, clay and phosphate,
which is usually located 15-50 feet below the
earth’s surface and is 10 -20 feet thick.
The matrix is then transported to a pit where
is it mixed with high pressure water guns to
create a slurry that can be pumped to a
beneficiation plant.
Dragline
Excavator
Once the slurry reaches the plant it then begins the
“floatation” or “beneficiation” process which
separates the sand and clay from the phosphate
rock. This step removes the largest particles, but to
recover the sand sized phosphate particles the
slurry must be treated further. First, slurry is passed
through a hydrocyclone to remove clay. Then sand
and sand-sized particles then go through a process
that uses water, physical force, and chemicals to
separate the sand and phosphate. The clay is
deposited in a pond, and the sand is used as fill to
restore the mining site.
Finally, for the phosphate to be used
as water-soluble fertilizer it must be
chemically processed. This is
completed by mixing the phosphate
with sulfuric acid, which forms
phosphoric acid that is then used for
fertilizer and a byproduct
phosphogypsum.
PHOSPHATE
• The general chemical structure of an
organophosphate.
Phosphate
What is Phosphate?
A phosphate, an inorganic chemical, is a salt
of phosphoric acid. In organic chemistry, a
phosphate, or organophosphate, is an ester
of phosphoric acid. Organic phosphates are
important in biochemistry and
biogeochemistry or ecology. Inorganic
phosphates are mined to obtain phosphorus
for use in agriculture and industry. At
elevated temperatures in the solid state,
phosphates can condense to form
pyrophosphates.
Phosphate
Cost of Mining
Just like other minerals, Phosphate
mining is very expensive. Since mining
is a very dangerous work, wages are
very costly.
Phosphate
Phosphate Market Value
• The price of phosphate rock rose 700% in 14 months
alone. While demand continues to increase, the cost of
mining phosphate rock is increasing due to transport in
addition to a decline in quality and greater expense of
extraction, refinement and environmental management.
• In addition to increasing the demand and hence price of
phosphate rock, biofuel demand is increasing fertilizer
runoff from short-rooted energy crops to pollute
waterways.
Phosphate
Dangers of Phosphate Mining
A roof fall was not the greatest danger that
miners faced (and still face). That was -- and
is -- the danger of the explosion of methane
gas. Methane is a natural by-product of the
organic processes that took place millions of
years ago when coal was formed. In earlier
times, safety officials would go in to check
the mines before workers entered.
THE END !! 
Submitted by :
Geologist : Godwin Gil
Industrialist: Chiqui Dizon
Economist: Celine Arnado