Mineral coal - Reflexions

Mineral coal

The term ‘mineral coal’ (a translation of the French ‘houille’, itself a Gallicised Walloon word) designates a carbonaceous rock with origins in the decomposition of plants in the Carboniferous period. It is one of the three varieties (along with ‘peat’ and brown coal) of what is more commonly known as ‘coal.’ Mineral coal, whose capacity for transformation is greater than that of peat or brown coal, is the coal whose carbon tenor and calorific value is the highest. The variety of mineral coal with the largest proportion of carbon is called ‘anthracite.’ It is still intensively mined today for personal heating, but above all for industrial and energy production.