World at work: charcoal producing industries in northeastern Brazil.

T he charcoal production process has been known since the Bronze Age, and was vital to metallurgy until the discovery of the conversion of coal to coke at the beginning of the 18th century. Brazil, now the largest charcoal producer of the world, with more than 12 million metric tons in year 2002, has preserved its charcoal based industries in large part because it has extensive iron deposits and very few coal mines.