a place underground where coal is dug 煤矿 Culture coal miningcoal miningCoal was very important in the economic development of Britain. It was used as fuel in the factories built during the Industrial Revolution and continued to be important until the 1980s. The main coalfields (= areas where coal is mined) were in north-east England, the north Midlands and the valleys of South Wales, especially the Rhondda Valley. Towns and villages grew around the collieries or pits (= coal mines) and were dominated by the pithead where the lifting machines were, and by large black slag heaps (= piles of waste material). Poor conditions and low pay led to a long history of industrial trouble and caused miners to play a leading role in the development of the trade union movement.In 1913 Britain produced 292 million tons of coal and employed over a million miners. In 1947, when the mines were nationalized (= brought under government control), there were still about 1 000 collieries and 700 000 miners. Increased use of North Sea oil and gas in the 1970s led to a lower demand for coal. Coal gas was replaced by natural gas. By the middle of the 1980s there were only 160 collieries and 200 000 miners. Fear of further job losses led to the long and violent miners' strike of 1984–5. In the 1990s more mines were closed. In mining communities throughout Britain thousands of former miners struggled to find new jobs. Collieries returned to being owned by private companies in 1994, and most coal now produced in Britain is sold to the electricity-generating industry. The US is the world's second largest producer of coal and most is mined in the Appalachian Mountains. Modern mining techniques used in West Virginia have removed whole mountain tops and destroyed large areas of forest. Coal is used especially in the electricity-generating industry and in the making of steel. However, the industry is in decline and several of the largest mining companies have gone out of business since 2015 as electricity is increasingly generated in other ways.
Idioms
a canary in a/the coal mine
something that gives you an early warning of danger 煤矿：可以给您预警的危险 Among the species at risk is the silvery minnow, the river's equivalent of a canary in a coal mine. 处于危险中的物种包括银色的小鱼，这条河相当于煤矿里的金丝雀。