Coal Deposits

Abstract

The coal deposits of Mongolia tend to become younger from west to east. Western Mongolian coals are Carboniferous, in Southern and Central Mongolia they are Permian, and those in Northern and Central Mongolia are Jurassic. In Eastern Mongolia, almost all coal deposits are Lower Cretaceous. Concurrently, coal rank is controlled by this westward aging trend of coal-bearing sedimentary sequences. In Carboniferous rocks, high-rank bituminous coals occur, while Permian rocks host mid-rank bituminous coals. Furthermore, Jurassic rocks contain low-rank bituminous to subbituminous coals, whereas Cretaceous rocks host lignite, only. Currently, Mongolian coal reserves are calculated at 36.1 Gt, and bituminous coal export was 33.4 Mt in 2017.