What is ‘Noncoal’?

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Noncoal Mines And Quarries In Pennsylvania


What is ‘Noncoal’?
‘Noncoal’ is any mined commodity that isn’t coal or peat. The Noncoal Surface Mining Conservation and Reclamation Act coined this label for the alternative to the coal program in Pennsylvania. These minerals are also referred to as “nonfuel minerals” or “industrial minerals”.
The most common noncoal mines in Pennsylvania produce “aggregate” (hard granular material used in concrete, mortar, plaster, blacktop). The types of rock used for these purposes are limestone/ dolomite, sandstone and argillite. Mineral deposits (that are not consolidated rock) of sand and gravel are also used.
Rock is also crushed into specific sizes to produce “crushed stone” for road base and fill material. Shale can be extracted fairly easily, without crushing, for similar purposes.
Other noncoal mines produce specialty mineral products such as bluestone, diabase, serpentinite, refractory sand and more.
Noncoal in Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania has abundant natural resources, including fuels (coal, gas, oil) and a large variety of minerals. Surface mining of noncoal/industrial minerals is a major industry. Pennsylvania is one of the top 10 producing states in the country for aggregate/crushed stone. The value of Noncoal mineral production in PA is around one billion dollars per year.
We get many benefits from quarries. Mineral products are essential for the following:
Building roads, foundations and transportation structures with cement, concrete, blacktop (asphalt), and crushed stone.
Construction of houses and buildings (concrete, sand, crushed stone for foundations and utilities; mineral components are contained in tile, brick, wallboard, paint and many other household materials)
Industry use (as abrasives, binders, additives, in water and air treatment systems)
Agriculture use (lime)
Landscaping use of concrete, topsoil, crushed stone, cut stone (dimension stone, flagstone, bluestone, slate), boulders, bricks (shale and clay), sand, and lime.
Roofing materials (rock granules, slate)
Pennsylvania is well known for their limestone/dolomite aggregate quarries in the Great Valley. Ideal rock for making cement exists in the Lehigh Valley where towns were built around cement production that continues today. Pennsylvania bluestone from the northern counties is highly prized and is exported to other areas. Sand and gravel deposits exist from past glacial action in the north, and from the coastal plain and river sediments in the east. There are many more specialty products and uses not mentioned here.
Metals or metal ore are not currently mined in PA but they have been in the past (and may be again someday). There were even iron, silver and zinc mines at one time but none of these historic prospects are currently economical to mine.
Quarries provide well-paying local jobs, taxes for the municipality, support for local businesses and local services such as paving, drilling, and snow-removal. Quarry pits can serve as water sources for firetrucks and water tankers to fill pools. Quarry discharges provide clean cold water to supplement local streams. Quarries are a great place to find interesting minerals, crystals, fossils and to observe unique geologic structure and features.
Of course, there are also drawbacks from quarrying:
Blasting
Groundwater withdrawals
Stream discharges
Dust, truck traffic and noise
Long-term land use that usually results in a totally different land surface upon completion
Potential safety hazards
Go To: Non Coal Mining Hazards & Problems
References for further information:
Pennsylvania Geological Survey
Directory of Nonfuel Producers
USGS “Mineral Industry of Pennsylvania” (PDF)
Shultz, Charles H. (editor), The Geology of Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania Geological Survey and Pittsburgh Geological Society,1999, 888p.
Pennsylvania Aggregates and Concrete Association
Minerals Information Institute

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