Geochemistry and Mineralogy of Coal-Bearing Rocks

Dear Colleagues,

On behalf of Minerals, I would like to invite you to contribute to the Special Issue related to the geochemistry, mineralogy, and petrology of coal-bearing rocks. These rocks, comprising a wide range of sediments with variable content of organic matter, are part of large geological sequences of different coalification. However, coal mining leads to the extraction of large volumes of coal-bearing rocks as well. The only small percentage of these rocks is usually reused as raw material for such purposes as road and building construction. The remaining part of these rocks is deposited in landfills. This practice, which is used all over the world, causes numerous environmental consequences since the reactive organic matter in coal-bearing rocks is susceptible to oxidation, biodegradation, and self-heating. These processes produce organic and inorganic pollutants emitted to the air or leached to waters and soil. Sulphide oxidation forms acidic conditions favouring mobilization of toxic metals from coal-bearing rocks. They together with chlorides, nitrates, and sulphates are leached and present a significant hazard to surface and groundwaters. Long-term storage of coal-bearing rocks affects the landscape of coal-mining regions and endangers inhabitants living in their vicinity.

This Special Issue invites contributions dealing with mineralogical, geochemical, and petrological aspects of these rocks themselves, their formation within a deposit, thermal evolution and secondary processes such as weathering, transformations after storage in landfills, newly formed phases, the impact of coal waste dumping on the environment and human health, the rehabilitation of coal waste landfills, and the recovery of coal waste material.

Prof. Dr. Monika J. Fabiańska
Dr. Magdalena Misz-Kennan
Dr. Justyna Ciesielczuk
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the Special Issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Minerals is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.