Rio Tinto is working aggressively to develop additional resource base of coal to meet the rising demand.

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Italy has coal in Sardinia, but it lacks the technological base to do the Sasol trick.

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However, the installed base of solar thermal electricity generation uses twice the water as coal and five times the amount as gas-fired plants.

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Examples of these resources include oil, natural gas, precious metals (particularly gold and silver), base metals such as copper and nickel, and other resources such as diamonds, coal, lumber and even water.

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