Trace Elements in West Virginia Coals

Thorium (Th) Summary Statistics

Histogram of thorium (Th) content, in ppm on a whole coal basis, in West Virginia coal samples (larger version) — Select the histogram to open a larger version.

Thorium in West Virginia coals averaged 3.02 ppm (± 2.12 ppm) with a skewed histogram showing a significant tail toward higher values and a maximum value of 12.9 ppm. Highest Th samples occurred in the Stockton and Coalburg coals. Thorium correlated moderately well with ash yield, and the ash related elements hafnium (Hf), chromium (Cr), tantalum (Ta), scandium (Sc), lithium (Li), lead (Pb), zirconium (Zr), vanadium (V), niobium (Nb), tellurium (Te), gallium (Ga) and cesium (Cs). Thorium also correlated with rare earth elements present in the mineral monazite, especially cerium (Ce), lanthanum (La), samarium (Sm), europium (Eu), lutetium (Lu), ytterbium (Yb), dysprosium (Dy), terbium (Tb) and neodymium (Nd).

Spearman Correlation Coefficients (r) with Thorium
Ash Yield	Hf	Cr	Ce	Ta	La	Sc	Li	Sm	Eu	Pb
+0.7912	+0.8947	+0.8898	+0.8880	+0.8766	+0.8745	+0.8644	+0.8174	+0.8142	+0.8053	+0.7984
n = 822	n = 508	n = 821	n = 530	n = 461	n = 526	n = 822	n = 822	n = 525	n = 527	n = 819

Lu	Zr	V	Yb	Nb	Dy	Tb	Nd	Te	Ga	Cs
+0.7622	+0.7590	+0.7511	+0.7482	+0.7104	+0.6867	+0.6786	+0.6785	+0.6723	+0.6619	+0.6443
n = 502	n = 728	n = 821	n = 529	n = 810	n = 70	n = 493	n = 414	n = 113	n = 821	n = 776

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Page content last revised: March 2, 2002