METHODS IN RESOURCE MODELING

The geological term 'coal resource' refers to a concentration of raw in-situ coal in a deposit
that is currently or potentially suited to economic extraction. Although much of the easily
mined coal in parts of the United States has previously been extracted, a large portion of
the remaining geological resources can be mined eventually as demand increases and
mining technology is improved. The resource base of coal refers to that quantity
remaining in-place under specified depth and thickness criteria. Not all of the reserve
base can be recovered under present natural and technological constraints. In general,
the amount that can be recovered from most coal deposits varies between 25 and 90
percent. The u.S. Bureau of Mines has adopted a rounded recoverability factor of 50
percent. For underground coal deposits, usually only about 30 percent of the total in-place
coal can be recovered (Schmidt, 1979). Considering that Alaska may contain as much as
50 percent of the United States coal-resource base and that almost all of it is low-sulfur
coal, estimates of known resources and recoverable reserves of low-sulfur coal probably
have not been overestimated as recently inferred by some writers. Almost no estimates
in the United States take into account the vast resources of Alaska coal. Available
geological resources determine the degree of coal development in an area and ultimately
the size of mining companies. Geological factors modify the relative magnitude of
available coal resources and most strongly affect the ownership, financial pattern, and
employment pattern present in the coal industry (Schmidt, 1979).