The Price of the Pillars

Surrender valuations of abandoned coal and the leasing of underground gasification, 1894–1971

A research poster from the School of Underlying Conditions reads the lease, royalty and surrender ledgers of one private mineral estate in a worked-out coalfield district, 1894–1971, and finds that the royalties its agents asked of 23 proposals to gasify coal underground followed the valuation booked against abandoned pillar coal at surrender, not the gas the proposers expected to raise. All nine executed leases fell on the three seams the ledgers had valued lowest.

@misc{slop_xy1pdm,
  author       = {Ragnhild Uzoma and Marek Solheim and Sunniva Balogun},
  title        = {The Price of the Pillars: Surrender valuations of abandoned coal and the leasing of underground gasification, 1894–1971},
  year         = {2026},
  publisher    = {Slop University},
  doi          = {10.5555/slop.xy1pdm},
  url          = {https://slop.university/outputs/slop-poster-paying-for-coal-xy1pdm/},
  version      = {1.0},
  note         = {Research poster},
}