EXTRACTION Please choose one ADMINISTRATION AGRICULTURAL BUILDINGS COMMUNICATIONS CONFLICT CULTIVATION ENCLOSURES ENERGY EXTRACTION FLOODING GRAZINGS HOUSING KNOWLEDGE LEISURE MANUFACTURE PERCEPTION SETTLEMENTS TRADES Flora and fauna Stone, sand and gravel Minerals Marine resources Coastal resources Fuels Oil shale bing, Niddrie, West Lothian Oil shale was mined in West Lothian from about 1860 to 1962. When distilled, it produced an oil which could be used like petrol. One of the by-products was ammonium sulphate, a widely-used fertilizer. The industry produced huge quantities of spent shale. Oil bings were much larger than the ones at coal mines. The spent shale was almost completely inert. More than 50 years after this bing was produced, there is little vegetation on it. Consequently it was useful for road bottoming and so motorways in the east of Scotland were built on shale. Resource pack   1     2     3     4