COAL USES:

  The four major uses of coal are:

ELECTRICAL POWER
Besides electric utility companies, industries and businesses with their own power plants use coal to generate electricity. Power plants burn coal to make steam. The steam turns turbines which generate electricity.

INDUSTRIAL
A variety of industries use coal's heat. Separated ingredients of coal (such as methanol) are used in making plastics, synthetic fibers, fertilizers, and medicines.

MAKING STEEL
Coal is baked in hot furnaces to make coke, which is used to smelt iron ore into iron needed for making steel.

Producer regions:

The United States has the world's largest known coal reserves, about 267.6 billion short tons.  This is enough coal to last approximately 236 years at today's level of use.

Other producers of coal are China, India, Australia, Russia and South Africa Republic.