Fossil Fuels for Energy Production - Their Exploration and Supply, As Illustrated in the Case of the Federal Republic of Germany.

The fossil fuels, hard coal and brown coal, in the Federal Republic of Germany account for almost a third of the energy produced to meet the primary energy demand. In the hard coal fields the progressive concentration of mining on sections of deposits with more favorable mining conditions is leading to the relatively rapid exhaustion of the economically extractable deposits in existing workings. The search for hard coal seams in reserve areas is therefore being intensively pursued, especially in the North Ruhr field. In the brown coal fields mining in several open pits is approaching an end. By systematic coal deposit exploration the prerequisites for the uncovery soon of a new, very large open pit in the Rhine coal-field have been created.