Coal mining - Underground, Surface, & Drilling | Britannica

The various methods of mining a coal seam can be classified under two headings, surface mining and underground mining. Surface and underground coal mining are broad activities that incorporate numerous variations in equipment and methods, and the choice of which method to use in extracting a coal seam depends on many technological, economic, and social factors. The technological factors include, at a minimum, the number of seams, the thickness and steepness of each seam, the nature and thickness of the strata overlying the seams, the quality of the coal seams, the surface topography, the surface features, and the transportation networks available. Economic factors include energy demand and its growth, the supply and cost of alternative sources of energy, coal quality and the cost of coal preparation, the selling price of coal, advancements in technology that affect costs of production, and environmental legislation. Social factors include prior history of mining in the area, ownership patterns, availability of labour, and local or regional government support.

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It is a general rule that technological factors dictate a clear choice between surface and underground mining, whereas economic and social factors determine whether a coal reserve will be mined at all. Some coal reserves, however, are surface-mined first and then deep-mined when the coal seam extends to such great depths that it becomes uneconomical to continue with surface mining. The point where it becomes economically necessary to switch from one method to the other can be calculated with the aid of stripping ratios, which represent the amount of waste material that must be removed to extract a given amount of coal. Stripping ratios can also consider the selling price of coal, and a certain minimum profit can be added to the total cost of producing and marketing the coal for a more thorough cost-benefit analysis.

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