Coal Usage In Canada
British Columbia, Alberta and Saskatchewan have the largest known reserves and resources in Canada that are actively mined. Coal is also mined in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. Coal reserves and resources have been identified in Yukon, Ontario, Newfoundland and Labrador, Northwest Territories and Nunavut, but these resources are not currently mined.
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Canada currently holds 8.7 billion tonnes of proved resources of coal in place. Of that amount, 6.6 billion tonnes are deemed recoverable using existing technology under current and expected local economic conditions. At today's production rate, these recoverable resources will last about 100 years.
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Production Annual coal production has remained relatively steady since 1990 in Canada, hovering between 65 and 75 million tonnes. Canada produces both thermal and coking coals. Thermal coal production has been steady, but coking coal production has been increasing due to demand changes on the global coking coal market. In 2007, 70 million tonnes of coal were produced
For More Information Click Here Coking Coal Another use of coal is that it can aid in the production of steel. This is done in a process called coking coal. Coal is placed in an open furnace where it gets rid of water, coal gas and coal tar (all the volatile and harmful substances). This process fuses the fixed carbon and residual ash. From there, the coal is purified so that all the residual ash leaves, crushed and burned once again to be used as a reducing agent in molding and smelting iron. The type of coal that is required for the process of coal coking to work is bituminous coal. In Canada alone, 30% of coal is used for coking coal in order to shape iron and 71% is used for Thermal purposes i.e. electricity and heat
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