China is the largest producer and consumer of coal and coal power in the world. The share of coal in the Chinese energy mix declined to 55% in 2021 according to the US Energy Information Agency.
Entrance to a small coal mine in China, 1999
A coal shipment underway in China, 2007
Site of the former Ministry of Coal Industry in Hepingli, Beijing; the ministry was abolished in 1998
A coal mine near Hailar District.
Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen.
Coal is a type of fossil fuel, formed when dead plant matter decays into peat which is converted into coal by the heat and pressure of deep burial over millions of years. Vast deposits of coal originate in former wetlands called coal forests that covered much of the Earth's tropical land areas during the late Carboniferous (Pennsylvanian) and Permian times.
Bituminous coal, the most common coal grade
Coastal exposure of the Point Aconi Seam in Nova Scotia
Coal miner in Britain, 1942
Coal production of the world in 1908 as presented by The Harmsworth atlas and Gazetter