Metallurgical coal is a black sedimentary rock found within the earth's crust. It is higher in carbon, typically low in moisture and is an essential part of the steel-making process.
What is metallurgical coal?
Metallurgical (met) coal (or coking coal) is a naturally occurring sedimentary rock found within the earth’s crust. Categories of met coal include hard coking coal, semi-hard coking-coal, semi-soft coking coal and pulverised coal for injection (PCI). These apply to the different quality grades of met coal, all of which are used to make steel. Met coal typically contains more carbon, less ash and less moisture than thermal coal, which is used for electricity generation.
Prehistoric
Coal is formed from prehistoric vegetation that has been heated and compressed over millions of years.
Energy
The energy we get from coal today comes from the sunlight that was absorbed by plants millions of years ago.
Heavy machinery
The equipment used to mine coal is huge! Excavators can weigh up to 800 tonnes and haul trucks can carry up to 300 tonnes per load.
Steel
It takes around 770kgs of met coal to make the steel used in a typical mid-sized car.
How is metallurgical coal used?
Metallurgical coal is an essential ingredient in the production of steel, one of the most widely used building materials on earth. It takes around 770 kilograms of coal to make one ton of steel with approximately 70 per cent of global steel produced in basic oxygen blast furnaces. The challenge for steelmaking is to produce this vital commodity to enable sustainable growth, while reducing the greenhouse gas emissions footprint of the production process itself.
Where is our metallurgical coal exported to?
Mineton's met coal is shipped to steel mills and coking plants in China, India, Japan, South-East Asia, South Korea, Europe and Latin America.
