The Globe and Mail reports in its Saturday edition that after two decades of evisceration, the Canadian diversified mining industry had one big name standing -- Teck Resources. The Globe's Eric Reguly writes that the company was not among the half-dozen giants that dominate the global mining industry, but it was the biggest we had left. With a smart strategy, disciplined spending and more than a little luck, Teck could emerge as a homegrown champion, perhaps not among the industry's A-team players, but near the top end of the B list. That was the vision, at least. What happened instead was self-evisceration. On Nov. 14, Teck sold its vast coal assets, all of them in Canada, to Glencore of Switzerland, Japan's Nippon Steel and South Korea's Posco, in an $8.9-billion deal (U.S.). Coal is the most carbon-intensive fuel, making it an energy pariah. Teck's coal, however, was not the thermal variety that is burned to generate electricity. It was metallurgical coal, which is used to make steel. To banish metallurgical coal from the market would be to banish steel production, and no one is calling for that. Eventually, a cheap, clean fuel will come along that will replace coal in steel making, but that may not happen for decades.