where does coal come from and how is it obtained
Coal Coal is extracted from the ground by coal mining. Since 1983, the world's top coal producer has been China.[3] In 2015 China produced 3,747 million tonnes of coal â€“ 48% of 7,861 million tonnes world coal production. In 2015 other large producers were United States (813 million tonnes), India (678), European Union (539) and Australia (503).[3] In 2010 the largest exporters were Australia with 328 million tonnes (27% of world coal export) and Indonesia with 316 million tonnes (26%),[4] while the largest importers were Japan with 207 million tonnes (18% of world coal import), China with 195 million tonnes (17%) and South Korea with 126 million tonnes (11%).[5]