The Mineral Council of Australia has launched a new website to show anti-coal activists that the fossil fuel is still popular.

AustraliansForCoal.com.au is aimed at giving “the silent majority of Australians who support coal a voice against the activists and extremists who want to tear the sector down,” according to the MCA.

The industry body says its new website will set the record straight in regard to coal sector community support, job numbers, economic value and environmental impacts.

MCA chief Brendan Pearson said says the coal sector is much-loved around the country.

“[The site] will give the majority of Australians who support the coal sector a chance to have a say and not allow a small number of noisy extremists to create the false impression that the community does not support Australia’s second largest export sector,” Pearson said.

He says those opposed to the multi-billion dollar industry employing tens of thousands of workers cannot win.

“The campaign to end coal production and exports will fail, not least because the activists cannot explain what will be used to build the bridges, schools, hospitals and the fast trains of the future,” he said.

“Every tonne of steel produced in basic oxygen furnaces contains about 770 kilograms of coal. And without coal there will be no wind energy - there is 250 tonnes of coal in every wind turbine.”

Some reports say the site is just the start of the MCA’s assault on people against coal, with a campaign rumoured to include television ads and a social media push as well.

The normally stoic coal industry has been fairly lively lately, with the bosses of BHP Billiton and Glencore talking openly about future demand, policies, productivity, danger and profitability.

BHP coal boss Dean Dalla Valle says the fuel is “maligned and misunderstood”.

“As an industry our job is to tell our story and highlight coal’s far reaching and social economic contribution,” he said.

Glencore Australia’s head of coal, Mr Peter Freyberg, believes that the industry, related businesses and nearby communities will have to work together and “find a path forward” while coal prices rise and demand is shaken too.