Frequently Asked Questions

The colors indicate status and mine type:

• Proposed: All projects that have been announced (via corporate or government planning documents), under permitting (including feasibility studies), or under construction are considered “proposed.” A proposal is considered active if it has shown activity over the past two years. The proposed category only includes mine projects and mine expansions for which a designed capacity figure of 1 million tonnes per annum has been projected.
• Operating: Mines that have begun coal removal are considered operating. This includes mines that have produced coal within the year, even if temporarily suspended by work stoppages or care and maintenance. In China, mines are considered “operational” once testing operations and experimental operations begin, which is prior to commercial production.
• Underground: When the mine’s work environment is below ground, enclosed by an overhead coal seam, rock, or soils (e.g. longwall mining, room and pillar mining, etc.).
• Surface: When the mine’s work environment is above ground, extracting coal from the surface after the removal of overburden (e.g. open pit mining, mountaintop removal mining, etc.).

Yes, go to the legend (bottom right corner of the map) and click in the box next to a color.

The numbers tell the number of mine operations or projects at each location (such as an  operating mine with a proposed expansion, or a “cluster” of network mines). To find information on each operation, click on the number, then select one of the colored dots.

If a coal mine is still in the proposal phase, prior to construction and extraction, there may be no sign of activity. In other cases, only approximate location information could be found. Underground mines may show limited activity above ground. Finally, satellite photos in some geographies are updated infrequently, so recent activity is not shown.

Locations tend to be known with greater accuracy as mines move from early stages of development toward construction. To find out the coordinates of a location and whether a location is exact or approximate, click on the location dot, select the wiki page, and look under “Project Details.”

Yes, click on “Table” in the top left corner of the map.

For each coal mine, the tracker calculates potential carbon dioxide emissions from combustion based on the following information: Estimating Carbon Dioxide Emissions from Coal Mines

The tracker uses a calculation based on production, gas content at mine depth, and an emissions factor coefficient. For details, see Estimating Methane Emissions from Coal mines” on GEM.wiki.

The Global Coal Mine Tracker includes all operating mines producing 1 million tonnes per annum or more with smaller mines included at discretion. Future updates will include smaller mines and increase global coverage.

The Global Coal Mine Tracker includes all proposed mines and mine expansions with a capacity of 1 million tonnes per annum or greater. Future updates will include smaller projects.

Production is the coal output of a mine and capacity is the amount of coal the mine is engineered to produce. The tracker provides coal production data in million tonnes (Mt) at operating mines and designed capacity (Mt) at proposed operations. If recent production figures are unavailable at an operating mine, then capacity figures are substituted.

Whenever possible, the tracker uses saleable production figures (the tonnage after processing) rather than ROM tonnage recorded before processing that may include raw materials and waste.

The tracker collects data on coal reserves and resources at each operation and project in million tonnes (Mt) and defined in compliance with international JORC reporting standards. The Total Reserve figure includes measured resources that are sufficiently “proved” and indicated/measured resources that are “probable.” For details, see Coal Reserves on GEM.wiki.

Please use the contact form to let us know about any errors or omissions.

The tracker was designed and produced by Global Energy Monitor. The information in the tracker has been verified by researchers familiar with particular countries.

The following people participated in mine-by-mine research: Özgür Acir (Association of Geological Researches – JADE), Noorafsha Adbulla (Conservation Action Trust), Paula Baker (Global Energy Monitor), Mary Beckman (Global Energy Monitor), James Browning (Global Energy Monitor), Bob Burton (Global Energy Monitor), Gregor Clark (Global Energy Monitor), Wynn Feng (Global Energy Monitor), Dulguun Gantulga (Global Energy Monitor), Anne Grainger (Coal Action Network), Celia Hack (Global Energy Monitor), Julie Joly (Global Energy Monitor), Prasad Khale (Conservation Action Trust), Madhuresh Kumar (NAPM India), Yedan Li (Global Energy Monitor), Tiffany Means (Global Energy Monitor), Lan Mei (Global Energy Monitor), Ted Nace (Global Energy Monitor), Kerry Nelson (Global Energy Monitor), Dan O’Beirne (Global Energy Monitor), James Peng (Global Energy Monitor), Christine Shearer (Global Energy Monitor), Ryan Driskell Tate (Global Energy Monitor), Adrian Wilson (Global Energy Monitor), Aiqun Yu (Global Energy Monitor), Ege Yuzbas (Global Energy Monitor), Scott Zimmerman (Global Energy Monitor), Medha Kapoor, Jelena Babajeva (Global Energy Monitor). The coalfield base-layer was created by Alice McGown (LINGO). Web/GIS programming was done by Tom Allnutt (GreenInfo Network), with support from Tim Sinnott (GreenInfo Network). The project manager is Ryan Driskell Tate, with project support from Ted Nace.

Please cite the data as “Global Coal Mine Tracker, Global Energy Monitor, April 2023 release.”