On Mining Energy, Chinese Coal and Wisconsin Wind

The Oil Drum – Well, what with all that has been going on in the world recently I haven’t posted much about technology at the weekends for a while. There has, however, been the odd comment about the energy costs of mining and how these are inevitably going to go up, as the resource base gets a little smaller. So I thought, since we try to be a fact-based site here, that I would give you a little homework to amuse you for a few moments and perhaps show you why there are ways in which mining can be made less energy expensive than it currently is. You will need a matchbox (or similar rectangular object of about that size), a cake and a knife (who said science couldn’t be fun).
The Oil Drum