Coke is a material with high carbon content and porosity.  It has high resistance to breakage and low reactivity with gases, particularly CO₂.  Coke production is an important part of the integrated iron and steel plants, as it is used both as a reducing agent and as a source of thermal energy in blast furnace.

Coke is produced by heating coking coals up to 1000 to 1200 °C for several hours in coke ovens to drive off volatile compounds and moisture.  Coal characteristics play an important role on the coke consumption and thus the energy demand. A 1% increase in the ash content of coke may increase the coke demand by 2%. This is an important factor for countries like India where the coal ash content is high.

Mining has long been part of the development and advancement of South Africa’s economy and has contributed largely in making the strongest economy on the continent.

South Africa’s mining industry is the country’s largest employer, with around 460,000 employees and a further 400,000 employed by the suppliers of goods and services to the industry.

Ownership, access and opportunity in regards to the country’s mineral resources are regulated by the Minerals and Petroleum Resources Development Act of 2002, which recognises the state’s custodianship over the country’s mineral resources.  As the country’s second largest earner in terms of the value of total sales after gold, coal provides 6.1% of the country’s total merchandise exports. South Africa is the sixth largest holder of coal in the world with 31 billion tonnes of recoverable coal reserves, equivalent to 11 % of the world’s total coal reserves.

Although most of the coal is consumed by the South African energy sector, with 77 % of the country’s primary energy needs provided by coal, 69 million tonnes of coal per annum are exported via Richard’s Bay Coal Terminal (RBCT). Historically the majority of this was exported to Europe, but Asia (India and China) has in recent years become the preferred market.

Coal is used as a fuel for manufacturing.  It is a key ingredient in manufacturing products such as tar, synthetic rubber, petroleum and
steel.  The iron industry uses coke ovens to melt iron ore.  This is an almost pure carbon residue of coal and is used as a fuel in smelting
metals.  Then these coals are transported around the world for use in coke ovens.  Other industries such as those that produce paper, brick, limestone and cement, use coal to manufacture products.  Some ingredients that are separated coal (such as methanol and ethylene)
are used to manufacture plastics, fertilizers, synthetic fibres, tar and medicines.

Clean coal technology helps in reducing air emissions and other pollutants from power plants that use coal for power generation.  Some
companies are using innovate techniques to clean coal and reduce emissions. According to John Riddle, author of “Coal Power of the
Future,” an example is the Polk Power Plant in Tampa, Florida, which uses specialized equipment to process coal before generating power
from it.  As a result, this power plant generates 85 percent less nitrogen dioxide and 32 percent less sulphur dioxide than other power plants.

If Eskom gets its way, South Africans will on average be paying just over double the current electricity price by 2018, after annual increases of 16% every year until then.  If the regulator grants the increases, power will cost around eight times more in 2018 than it did in 2008, when parts of the country last experienced blackouts as power generation failed to keep up with demand.

Eskom said that a third of the increase will be required to pay for higher coal costs, and another quarter will go to increased operating costs. The rest is made up mostly of making provision for replacing ageing infrastructure and paying current and future debt raised to do so.
But that is based on somewhat conservative assumptions. Eskom believes its payments for coal will increase by no more than 10% every year, and that its employee costs will increase by no more than 6% every year. A big spike in the cost of coal significantly higher than inflation would play havoc with the numbers.

The increase Eskom requested also did not make provision for the introduction of a carbon tax, and assumed independent power producers would start contributing significantly to power generation over the next five years. This process of allowing such outside players into the industry has seen long and consistent delays.  Should the independent producers not develop as the government plans, Eskom said, it will require 20% year-on-year increases.