Question

Most industries are concentrated around coal mines. Give reasons.

Answer 1

Coal is used as raw material in many industries, hence most of the industries are concentrated around coal mines. Proximity of industries around the coal mines reduces the cost of transportation and saves time.

• The most abundantly available fossil fuel is coal.
• Coal is used to generate electricity in thermal power plants, used in steam engines, in iron and steel industries and it is also used as domestic fuel.
• Coal that is extracted and used for the development of the nation was formed over millions of years ago when swamps and giant ferns got buried deep inside the earth.
• Hence Coal is also known as the Buried Sunshine.
• The main sources of conventional energy are fossil fuels such as natural gas, petroleum and coal.
• Examples of non-metallic minerals are petroleum and coal, which are also known as mineral fuels.
• There are very limited reserves of these mineral fuels.
• Natural gas and petroleum are located far below earth’s surface. To extract them, deep wells are drilled.
• The rate of their formation is very very small when compared to the rate at which they are consumed by the global population. Hence they will be exhausted very quickly.
• The places in India where petroleum is extracted are deltas of Krishna and Godavari rivers, Bombay High in Mumbai and Digboi in Assam.