Book excerpt: This book gathers technical and scientific articles by leading experts from 15 countries and originally presented at the world’s most prestigious forum on coal preparation: the XVIII International Coal Preparation Congress. Topics addressed include: the mineral resources basis of the coal industry; problems and prospects of development in the coal industry; crushing, grinding, screening and classification processes used at sorting plants; coal processing and briquette factories; review of plant designs and operations used around the world; new developments in dense-medium separators, water-based separation processes, froth flotation and dewatering; technologies and equipment for the dry separation of coal; coal deep processing technologies and equipment; energy generation as an area of coal deep processing; and simulation and optimization software for separation processes.In general, the future of coal around the world is defined by its competitiveness. As the cheapest form of fuel (comparatively speaking), coal undoubtedly continues to be in high demand around the world.