Petrographic evaluation of coking potential of selected coals and blends

The United States Bureau of Mines, Geological Survey, and other agencies have made extensive investigations on Alaskan coals. Coke tests on Alaskan coals as early as 1908 have indicatedd, that a few coals are of coking quality. However, lack of known coking coal reserves large enough for economic exploitation precludes competitive marketing. These coals which do indicate coking quality often occur in isolated areas and in complex geologic structure, thus prohibiting development. This study by no means defines the economic feasibility of mining, processing, or marketing of potential coking coals, but rather is concerned with new innovations of coal science to determine the possibility of blending coking cads with non-coking coals. Results i n d a t e that coherent coke products may be made by this blending and further illustrates a possible increase in reserves of coking coal

Structural adjustment and subsistence industry: artisanal gold mining in Ghana

Since the implementation of Ghana's national Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP), policies associated with the programme have been criticized for perpetuating poverty within the country's subsistence economy. This article brings new evidence to bear on the contention that the SAP has both fuelled the uncontrolled growth of informal, poverty-driven artisanal gold mining and further marginalized its impoverished participants. Throughout the adjustment period, it has been a central goal of the government to promote the expansion of large-scale gold mining through foreign investment. Confronted with the challenge of resuscitating a deteriorating gold mining industry, the government introduced a number of tax breaks and policies in an effort to create an attractive investment climate for foreign multinational mining companies. The rapid rise in exploration and excavation activities that has since taken place has displaced thousands of previously-undisturbed subsistence artisanal gold miners. This, along with a laissez faire land concession allocation procedure, has exacerbated conflicts between mining parties. Despite legalizing small-scale mining in 1989, the Ghanaian government continues to implement procedurally complex and bureaucratically unwieldy regulations and policies for artisanal operators which have the effect of favouring the interests of established large-scale miners