Introduction - Coal Waste Impoundments: Risks, Responses, and Alternatives - page 2

TABLE 1.1 Major World Coal Reserves, 2000
Country Reserves in million short tons Percentage of world total

United States 246,643 25.1

Former USSR 230,178 23.4

China 114,500 11.6

India 74,733 7.6

South Africa 55,333 5.6

Australia 90,400 9.2

Germany 67,000 6.8

Poland 14,309 1.5

Canada 8,623 0.9

Indonesia 5,220 0.5

United Kingdom 1,500 0.2

Mexico 1,211 0.1

Others 74,561 7.6

SOURCE: Data extracted from BP Global, 2001 .

split between the Eastern and Western regions (Chircop, 1999). Although
some 300 different coal beds are mined each year, almost 47 percent of total
production comes from just 10 of the largest deposits.
Important coal deposits east of the Mississippi, are found in 10 states
(Alabama, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Ohio, Pennsylvania,
Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia). In the West, the Wyodak coal bed, the
nation's leading source of coal, underlies part of the Powder River Basin of
Wyoming and Montana. Other active Western coal reserves are found in
Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, Arizona, and Alaska (Chircop, 1999). In the