End of a spill taken to light brown coal (7)
I believe the answer is:
lignite
'brown coal' is the definition.
(synonyms)
'end of a spill taken to light' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'light' could be 'ignite' (I've seen this in another clue) and 'ignite' is located in the answer.
A single letter 'l' remains which might be clued in a way I don't understand.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for lignite that I've seen before include "Brown coal" , "rock" , "it'll burn" , "Fuel" , "Soft brownish coal" .)