Myth Busting Five Coal Claims of Anti-Development Groups
Often, anti-development or anti-coal groups present information on why met coal resources shouldn’t be developed, often presenting no downside to not building mines, or alternatively presenting an extreme exaggeration of risk. Let’s myth-bust the most common anti-met coal stories they tell.
#1 We don’t need met coal; we can use hydrogen.
This is by one of the easiest claims to debunk, while there have been specialized pilot projects that have reduced ore using hydrogen the volume simply isn’t there. Hybrit for example has produced approximately 5000 tonnes of sponge iron (an intermediate stage of steel making). And over 90% of all planned hydrogen facilities plan to use natural gas as their initial feedstock— not hydrogen.
How does this rank in terms of world steel production? Well, quite low. Even if we were to double or triple that production to include a handful of other pilot plants, it still wouldn’t amount to much more than 0 percent of world steel production.
Met, or steelmaking coal, accounts for over 70 percent of the nearly 1.9 billion tonnes of steel produced in 2024. While hydrogen does represent an exciting future source of steel, we are unlikely to see any meaningful volumes until the 2030s or 2040s (steel makers have said the same), and even then, met coal will still be in strong demand.
So is hydrogen on its way to displacing met coal like critics claim? No. Myth busted.
#2 Met coal contributes very little to Provincial economies, so we shouldn’t be worried if mines aren’t developed.
This claim is a bit misleading, as Alberta doesn’t really produce any significant volumes of steelmaking coal. For instance, British Columbia, which has a large, historic, and well-developed sector produces nearly 30 mt (million tonnes) of steel making coal a year, contributes nearly $10.6 billion in value for the province for 2024. While Alberta produces roughly 0.70 mt per year. Mining in total is about 5.4% of BC’s total GDP for 2023 (with coal being a large part of it). BC is a world leader in developing met coal reserves, and both BC and Alberta have a great opportunity to grow their production, create jobs, and meet world demand.
So is it true that coal isn’t a significant economic contributor? In BC it is patently false, and in Alberta, they simply haven’t actually developed a met coal sector. What is the verdict on this claim? Busted.
#3 Metallurgical coal demand has declined; these mines won’t be needed.
Met coal demand hasn’t declined at all over the last decade, in fact, it has only increased. This, paired with the fact that there is under-investment in new met coal mines, means we may have a supply deficit in the next decade.
Furthermore, analysts expect seaborne metallurgical coal demand to only increase over the next few decades. This means that producers such as Australia, Russia, the United States, and Canada will have an opportunity to be the ones that develop their reserves to meet this demand. If Canada chooses not to, it will be those countries that gain.
What’s the verdict? Met coal is going to be in demand for decades to come, and producers that produce will be the ones that can capture that seaborne growth. Myth busted.
#4 It is impossible to manage selenium
This claim is often the most alarming one brought forward by anti-development groups, but is it actually true?
Managing selenium begins with thoughtful and effective mine design. Does selenium management require a lot of planning? With proper planning, it can be done efficiently and effectively (McKenna & Gilron, 2022, 2021). Anti-development groups repeatedly tell Canadians that metallurgical coal miners/producers can’t manage the selenium that is potentially released from their operations and that these projects will threaten the health of people, wildlife, and industries downstream. This leads one to the conclusion that we should never build mines.
While selenium is a necessary element for life, it is true that, in excess, it can have harmful effects (Janz et al., 2010). However, modern mines are designed to incorporate selenium management, including modern mitigation and treatment practices, which can manage selenium well (Golder, 2020; McKenna & Gilron, 2022, 2021). The summary table below presents the magnitude of selenium removal at full-scale coal mining operations.
Summary of treatment methods employed at coal mines, and associated selenium reductions
Operation (Location) | Selenium Reductions (%) | Treatment Method(s) | Reference |
Conuma Brule Mine (Northeast BC) | removal up to 94% (with concentrations decreasing from ~200 μg/L to 20 μg/L). | In situ anaerobic bioreactor | Kona & Atuke, 2022; Miller et al., 2019 |
Simplot Smoky Canyon Mine (Idaho, USA) | removal of 91% of the influent total selenium load (Simplot 2021) | Water Treatment Plant [Reverse osmosis and flotation bioreactor (aeration reactor)] | |
Confidential (Southwestern USA) | % removal from ≥ ~85% to > 90% . | Selen-IXÔ, non-biological | Kratochvil et al., 2022 |
Trend Mine (Northeast BC) | reduce selenium up to 96.4% (with concentrations decreasing from 130 µg/L to 5 µg/L | ABMet |
So, can selenium be efficiently and effectively managed? It certainly can.
#5 Coal is a “thirsty business” and its water use threatens other industries.
This one is maybe the most hyperbolic of all and is mostly espoused by anti-development organizations in Alberta. So, let’s break down this claim using Alberta data.
Firstly, Alberta has an allocation of 9.73 billion cubic metres per year of water. The total breakdown by industry is agriculture (44.3%), cooling (16.5%), municipal use (12.5%), oil and gas (9.6%), and commercial use (7.1%).
So how much water would coal mines use based on these numbers? Would they tip the scales and deprive Albertans of water as is so claimed?
Well, using the water use for the last two public proposals for met coal mines in Alberta, we end up with water use of 0.00057% and 0.0057% of that total allocation. For comparisons sake to another sector, The Alberta Agdex has canola water use at ~350–500 mm/m², meaning a hectare of canola would use approximately 0.000035%–0.00005% of Alberta’s total. So, these mines are about 14 and 130 ha worth of canola in irrigation. Alberta has approximately 680,000 ha under irrigation in total. These operations are, to say, “a drop in the bucket.”
So, would two projects totaling just over five ten-millionths of a percent and fifty-seven millionths of a single percent of Alberta’s water allocation cause drought and hardship downstream?
It’s unlikely. Myth busted.