page_title: Coal mining
section_title: Production
hierarchical_section_title: Coal mining / Production
caption_attribution_description: A coal mine in Hailar, Inner Mongolia, China.
context_page_description: Coal mining is the process of extracting coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content and since the 1880s, has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from iron ore and for cement production. In the United Kingdom and South Africa, a coal mine and its structures are a colliery, a coal mine is a 'pit', and the above-ground structures are a 'pit head'. In Australia, "colliery" generally refers to an underground coal mine. In the United States, "colliery" has been used to describe a coal mine operation, but this usage is less common.
  Coal mining has had many developments over the recent years, from the early days of men tunneling, digging, and manually extracting the coal on carts to large open cut and long wall mines. Mining at this scale requires the use of draglines, trucks, conveyors, hydraulic jacks and shearers.
context_section_description: Coal is mined commercially in over 50 countries. Over 7,036 Mt/yr of hard coal was produced in 2007, a substantial increase over the previous 25 years. In 2006, the world production of brown coal (lignite) was slightly over 1,000 Mt, with Germany the world's largest brown coal producer at 194.4 Mt, and China second at 100.6 Mt.
  Coal production has grown fastest in Asia, while Europe has declined. Since 2013, the world coal production is decreasing, −6% in 2016. The top coal mining nations are:
  Most coal production is used in the country of origin, with around 16 percent of hard coal production being exported.
caption: Coal mine in China
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