Since the assessment of coal reserves for the Royal Commission on the coal industry of Great Britain made nearly a century ago, up to assessments made by geologists of the National Coal Board, it has been evident that the coalfields of Scotland contain considerable quantities of coal. Throughout the past two decades the presence of hydrocarbons in the rocks beneath the North Sea, the general abundance of oil in various parts of the world, and the development of nuclear power, has meant that coal is only one of several sources of energy readily available to us. The coalfields of Scotland contain seams of varying quality and energy content and so can be compared with other fuels. Consequently it is the cost of the energy to the consumer that is often the controlling factor in the choice of which fuel to use. The very nature of coal as a bulky and not-too-easily-handled fuel has meant that only the generation of electricity offers the scope for substantial consumption of coal.

The paper examines these factors and also the location of the coal reserves in Scotland, particularly in the light of the geological factors that affect the cost of the energy. The National Coal Board's deep mining exploration programme in Great Britain has sought opportunities for new ventures and developments, some of which have been in Scotland. The market for the coal and the competition for that market clearly indicates that the productivity of coal mining operations is paramount in determining the future size of the coal industry in Scotland. About half of the coal can be provided from low-cost opencast operations, with the other half obtained from the mines with the highest productivities—productivities that result in energy costs similar to those obtained from oil and nuclear power.