What is it and how is it formed?  Coal is a sedimentary rock made up of plants from a million years ago.  First the plants make a layer and then they are pushed down by layers of plants on top of them. This bottom layer becomes something called peat.  The layers and layers of plants that keep piling up on top of the peat make it change into lignite and then bituminous coal and then anthracite coal.

How and where is it mined?  Coal is mined using surface and underground mining.  The kind of mining that is used depends on where the coal is found and how close to the surface it is. If it is only a few feet below the surface, layers of dirt will be bulldozed off and then a kind of surface mining will be used.  If engineers see that there is coal deep down in the Earth, they will decide if it will cost too much to bring it up.  If they decide that the mining company can make lots of money by mining it, they will choose an underground method that goes along with the land that is mined.  For example:  An engineer finds a bed of coal that runs out the side of a hill.  This would mean that they probably wouldn’t use a shaft mine that is dug straight down from the top of the hill, but would probably pick a slope mine that goes in from the hill side.   The shaft mine would mean more digging to reach the coal than the slope mine would have.  With mine owners, the most important thing is to make money while keeping the mining costs [like electricity, hours the men work, insurance, etc.] down. Coal is mined all over the world.

What is it used for?  Coal is used in plastic, papermaking, heat, perfume, rubber, charcoal, roofing shingles, glassmaking, and iron and steel.