Location: GLO - Global
This dataset represents the production of 1 kg run-of-mine (ROM) hard coal extracted from open pit mines employing truck and shovel methods. In order to be consistent with the structure of the ecoinvent database this global dataset was created as an exact copy of the local, South African, dataset. No Rest of the World dataset was deemed necessary for this activity, therefore the production volume of the global dataset is set equal to the South African dataset.
213 million tonnes tones of ROM coal were produced from surface mines in South Africa in 2014, with open pit mines employing truck and shovel methods estimated to acount for around 22% of South Africa's total ROM coal production in 2014 (underground and opencast). Strip mining using draglines is the predominant surface mining method in South Africa. Although accounting for a lower share of coal, and with data based on only two mines, a separate dataset for truck and shovel mining has been prepared becuase of the very different energy profile, with truck and shovel mines using predominantly diesel, whereas strip mines use predominantly electricity.This dataset provides an average profile for an open pit mine using a combination of industry data and government research reports for inputs to the mining process as well as methane emissions. Water use and water emissions are for surface mining in general, i.e. not specific to strip or open pit mining. Emissions to water should only be taken as indicative and are highly uncertain. Particulate emissions are rough estimates and not specific to South African surface mines. Land transformation assumes the mines are located in the grassland region of South Africa and that the pre-mining land use was livestock grazing. For land occupation, mine life is assumed to be 30 years (slightly below the average predicted lifetime of the mines in the industry data sample), with revegetation assumed to be completed within 25 years of mine closing. Infrastructure requirements are generic, and are as applied in other ecoinvent coal mining datasets (in which total production over the life time of the mine is assumed to be 3*10^10 kg, an average value that is not representative for single mines or specific conditions).
[This dataset is meant to replace the following datasets:]
Undefined unit processes (UPRs) are the unlinked, multi-product activity datasets that form the basis for all of the system models available in the ecoinvent database. This is the way the datasets are obtained and entered into the database by the data providers. These activity datasets are useful for investigating the environmental impacts of a specific activity (gate-to-gate), without regard to its upstream or downstream impacts.