The past decade has seen significant developments in Clean Coal Technology (CCT).
Carbon capture has not been the only recent improvement to Clean Coal Technology. This means, more electricity per unit of coal, less solid wastes per unit of electricity, lower carbon dioxide emissions per unit of electricity and less thermal pollution per unit of electricity. In the past coal mining has produced significant acid mine drainage. Sulphuric acid derived from coal mine wastes has been allowed to pollute rivers and streams, and has meant that the environmental effects of coal mining have spread out of the mining region. Good mining methods coupled with efficient mine land rehabilitation will significantly reduce such cases of pollution from future mining operations.
Improvements in coal mining and mine rehabilitation are also on-going. The societal and occupational cost of coal mining and use has been great in the past. Society has been damaged by health problems arising from coal sourced pollutants, whilst mining has killed thousands of miners each year.
The Early Days of Mining
Coal mining in Illinois dates from before the 1860's when some mines, which only supplied local demand, were opened in the area south of Joliet. The boom in coal mining in northern Illinois dates from 1864, when a farmer near Bourbonnais Illinois hospital struck a vein of coal while he was drilling a water well. The mining companies sank shafts, and soon boom towns sprang up near the mines, drawing miners from Pennsylvania and Europe.
The mining companies were utterly exploitative, forcing their employees to live in company towns in which the workers had no rights whatever. Furthermore, the companies cheated the miners by screening the coal they mined and only paying them for the larger lumps which were retained by the screens, thus obtaining the smaller lumps for free.
Also, the miners were largely unemployed during the summer when the demand for coal decreased. During economic recessions the fall in demand for coal led to miner layoffs. Nor did the mining companies care about their workers' health. Miners were frequently injured when large rocks fell upon them. The coal companies did not give the miners adequate lumber to brace the mines. Explosive gas was often released in some mines and miners were often injured or killed when these gases exploded.
Mining Dangers - Mining Disasters From Around the World
Honkeiko Colliery, China (April 26, 1942)
A deadly gas explosion at the Mitsubishi Hojyo coal mine in Kyushu, Japan, killed 687 miners, making it the worst mining disaster in Japan's history. The worst was at where 438 men and boys were killed by a methane explosion ignited by coal dust. 437 miners perished. The Dhanbad coal mine disaster occurred on May 28, 1965, in a coal mine near Dhanbad, a town in India. The fire killed 375 miners.