Coal mining

Japanese: 石炭鉱業 - せきたんこうぎょう

An industry that explores, develops, mines, prepares, and transports coal, and then supplies it to users as fuel and industrial raw materials. As fuel, steam coal is supplied to energy conversion industries such as electric power and city gas businesses, and to energy-intensive manufacturing industries such as the cement industry and the paper and pulp industry, while as raw material, coking coal is supplied to the steel industry and coal chemical industry. In Western Europe, there are many cases where coal mining companies also simultaneously handle downstream sectors such as power generation, gas supply, coke production, and coal chemicals.

Source: Heibonsha World Encyclopedia, 2nd Edition Information

Japanese:

石炭の探鉱･開発，採掘，選炭，輸送を通して，それを燃料や工業原料としてユーザーに供給する産業。燃料としては一般炭が，電力事業，都市ガス事業などのエネルギー転換産業や，セメント工業，紙･パルプ工業などエネルギー多消費型の製造業へ供給され，原料としては原料炭が，鉄鋼業，石炭化学工業などへ供給される。西ヨーロッパでは，石炭鉱業会社が発電，ガス供給，コークス製造，石炭化学といった，より下流の部門を同時に手がけている例も多い。

出典　株式会社平凡社世界大百科事典第２版について　情報

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