Editing Coal mining (section)

{{Short description|Process of getting coal out of the ground}}
{{Redirect|Coal miner|the John J. Szaton statue|Coal Miner (statue)}}
[[File:Coal mine Wyoming.jpg|thumb|Surface coal mining in [[Wyoming]], U.S.]]
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2021}}
[[File:Lackawanna Coal Mine car, Nov 2014.jpg|thumb|A coal mine [[mantrip]] at [[Lackawanna Coal Mine]] in [[Scranton, Pennsylvania]]]]
[[File:FIRST SHIFT OF MINERS AT THE VIRGINIA-POCAHONTAS COAL COMPANY MINE ^4 NEAR RICHLANDS, VIRGINIA, LEAVING THE ELEVATOR.... - NARA - 556393 tweaked.jpg|thumb|Coal miners exiting a [[Hoist (mining)|winder]] [[Shaft sinking|cage]] at a mine near [[Richlands, Virginia]] in 1974]]
[[File:0 Frameries - Charbonnage de Crachet Picquery (1).JPG|thumb|A coal mine in [[Frameries]], Belgium]]
'''Coal mining''' is the process of [[resource extraction|extracting]] [[coal]] from the ground or from a mine. Coal is valued for its [[Energy value of coal|energy content]] and since the 1880s has been widely used to [[Electricity generation|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 called a "pit", and above-ground mining structures are referred to as a "[[pit head]]". In [[Australia]], "colliery" generally refers to an underground coal mine.

Coal mining has had many developments in recent years, from the early days of men tunneling, digging, and manually extracting the coal on carts to large [[Open-pit mining|open-cut]] and [[Longwall mining|longwall]] mines. Mining at this scale requires the use of [[Dragline excavator|draglines]], trucks, [[conveyor]]s, [[hydraulic jack]]s, and shearers.

The coal [[mining industry]] has a long history of significant negative [[Health and environmental impact of the coal industry|environmental impacts]] on local ecosystems, health impacts on local communities and workers, and contributes heavily to the global environmental crises, such as [[Air pollution|poor air quality]] and [[climate change]]. For these reasons, coal has been one of the first [[Fossil fuel phase-out|fossil fuels to be phased out]] of various parts of the [[Energy industry|global energy economy]]. The major coal producing countries, though, such as [[Coal in China|China]], Indonesia, [[Coal in India|India]] and [[Australia]], have not reached peak production, with production increases replacing falls in Europe and the United States<ref name=iea-2020/> and proposed mines under development.<ref name="T2">Ryan Driskell Tate, Christine Shearer, and Andiswa Matiknca, [https://globalenergymonitor.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/CoalMines_2021_r4.pdf "Deep Trouble: Tracking Global Coal Mine Proposals,"] Global Energy Monitor, June 2021</ref> The coal mining industry employs almost 2.7 million workers.<ref>{{cite news |title=Coal industry faces 1 million job losses from global energy transition - research |url=https://www.reuters.com/markets/coal-industry-faces-1-million-job-losses-global-energy-transition-research-2023-10-10/ |work=Reuters |date=10 October 2023}}</ref><ref name="M2">Ryan Driskell Tate, Dorothy Lan Mei, Tiffany Means, [https://globalenergymonitor.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/GEM_Coal_Mine_Employment_2023.pdf "Scraping By: Global Coal Miners and the Urgency of a Just Transition,"] Global Energy Monitor, October 2023</ref>