Coal mining and timber are the two primary industries supporting the people of Southwest Virginia. Coal mining has occurred for more than 100 years, but production has dropped since reaching a peak in 1990. In order to properly plan with remaining coal production a study was conducted to characterize and estimate coal resources. Seam thickness was found to be the parameter which most influenced resource levels. An economic model was developed to determine which portion of the reserves could economically be extracted. It was found that 3.95 billion tons, or 14% of the remaining resource, is economic under current mining conditions. More than 60% of these reserves, however, are in deep seams which require shafts to be constructed prior to initiation of mining. / Ph. D.

With the development of modern technology the perception of waste is changing. What was once considered unusable and expensive can be now seen as an useful material with potential to increase revenues of the company. As example can serve energetic industry, which was until recently only able to store its waste produced during combustion of coal. Now energetic companies are able to transform their waste into secondary energetic products (by-products) that can be further used in other industries. The main goal of the thesis is to determine whether there is a potential for the development of the secondary energetic products in the Czech Republic.