Coal is on the way out. Don't tell the Government

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by DiscoDB

.........

75% of the proven coal reserves in the world are in just 5 countries - USA (23%), Russia (15%), Australia (14%), China (13%), and India (10%). Sitting just outside of the top 5 is Ukraine. [emoji848]

---

These figures are essentially meaningless. "Proven reserves" is a legally defined term intended to prevent stock market fraud. Proving reserves is time consuming and expensive (involves lots of drilling), and is only done to satisfy a customer or a potential customer that the coal is there before they can be persuaded to sign a contract.

The only relation between "proven reserves" and "real economically recoverable coal" is that the latter is larger - but the size of both figures also depends on the actual price of coal, not to mention potential or actual restrictions on mining, and it is quite easy to see "proven reserves" worldwide going to zero worldwide in the lifetime of many of us, not because the coal was all mined, but because it is either unsaleable or impossible to mine.

Anyone with a moderate knowledge of world geology recognises that the figure for "proven reserves" is a tiny fraction of the actual coal that is potentially mineable. For example, in the Sydney basin, coal has been mined round the edges from the Hunter to Lithgow to Illawarra, and in the middle of Sydney - but the coal is present over the whole basin, just not as easy to mine (same reason the rail bridge over the Hawkesbury killed the mine at Balmain!).

Correct - actual coal reserves, when you include unproven reserves, are even larger again if you can get approval for new exploration and new mining, and of course can prove it is economically viable to mine.

As an example, unlikely we will see coal mining under Sydney again even though there would still be coal present.

What it does mean is China and Russia can be self sufficient on coal and won’t be reliant on western financing or insurance to develop new mines.

Hence, the western countries will phase out coal first (due to political and environmental pressure), and Russia, China, and possibly India will carry on regardless (due to economic need).

There are some pretty important lines being drawn in the sand around the world at present, and fossil fuels seem to be at the heart of it all.

Probably lots of coal available but that doesn't help todays news about Australia's coal fired power stations all shutting down by 2030....hot potato , hot potato.

I bet the govt backed AGL are absolutely spewing following Cannon-Brookes and his associates withdrawing their offer.

Maybe the Dean Bros will put in an offer for scrap demolition , as they are basically valueless.

No sympathy for board members or corporate investors......the warning lights have been flashing for years

And no sympathy for surrounding communities either , who have also had warning for years and years.

And it appears the big companies have no sympathy for the communities either.

It's all just big business operating at it's finest.

I'll lay money that straight after the Fed elections. regardless of who gets in, there will be new coal fired power stations announced, and at least two.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by drivesafe

I'll lay money that straight after the Fed elections. regardless of who gets in, there will be new coal fired power stations announced, and at least two.

---

Could we afford to pay for the coal now[biggrin][biggrin] Gas is up another 60% today! Coal OMG[biggrin] we Mexicans might have a lot of very wet very dirty unused brown coal? [bigrolf]

"The spot price for shipments leaving the Port of Newcastle in New South Wales soared to US$418 ($564) a tonne late last week, eclipsing the previous record of US$269 ($362) a tonne, which was set only four months ago.It is a significant turnaround from 2020, when the price dipped below US$50 ($67) a tonne.
" from ABC news

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by drivesafe

I'll lay money that straight after the Fed elections. regardless of who gets in, there will be new coal fired power stations announced, and at least two.

---

We can only hope so.