Coal fires

• Environmental impacts
  • Has the world’s greatest concentration of underground coal fires
  • Coal fires can burn for years
  • Coal mines release methane - GHG
• Impact on water supply
  • Underground mining also lowers the groundwater level around the mines since vast quantities of groundwater is pumped out in order to remove the coal from the mines. This affects water availability in the vicinity of the mining area.
• Exposure of geologically toxic elements and minerals:
  • Underground mining exposes huge amount of earth materials and rocks. They possess a significant risk of contamination from heavy metals and geologically derived toxic minerals to nearby ground and surface water sources.