Modern Mining June 2022

challenges

2022 to increase to 8 025 mt – the highest ever. This figure, however, could be higher as it was estimated before the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Chinese demand for coal according to the IEA accounted for roughly 52% of global demand in 2021 (4 130 mt), followed by 13.4% from India (1 056 mt) and 6.4% (508 mt) from the United States. The IMF predicts that the Chinese economy will grow by 4.4% in 2022 and that of India by 8.2%. In 2021, China mined roughly 50% of global coal production (3 925 mt), followed by India (793 mt), Indonesia (576 mt) and Australia (470 mt). Australia remained the largest coal exporting

Years of underinvestment in new coal mines or infrastructure are also contributing to the supply crunch.

costs that will further feed into global inflation and costs to consumers. The global demand for coal is estimated by the International Energy Association (IEA) to have increased to 7 906 million tons (mt) in 2021 (previ ously estimated at 7 432 mt). This is an increase of 6% from 2020 and 1.3% higher than pre-Covid pan demic demand in 2019. The IEA expects demand for

Coal remains the largest source of electricity generation and the largest single source of CO 2 emissions.

June 2022  MODERN MINING  11