State-owned Coal India expects to step up underground production by nearly 40 per cent over the next four years from 37 million tonnes in 2014-15.
Yet, the share of underground production in the total will not go up from the current 7 per cent as opencast production is set to grow at a faster pace.
According to AK Debnath, Chairman and Managing Director of Central Mine Planning and Design Institute Ltd (CMPDI), Coal India’s consultancy arm, efforts are on to step up underground production by introducing mass production techniques.
“Underground production received less attention in the last 20 years. But now we are focussed on ramping it up,” he said.
Underground push CIL uses continuous miners in eight underground projects with a total planned capacity of 3.35 mt a year. The is introducing continuous miners with a total capacity of 13.5 mt in 19 more mines.
Most of the new projects are in Mahanadi Coalfields (five) and South Eastern Coalfields (five), followed by central coalfields (four), Eastern coalfields (two) and Bharat Coking Coal (one). In addition, introduction of continuous miners in nine more mines with a total capacity of 10 mt is under consideration.
The first longwall mine of one mt capacity at BCCL’s Moonidih 16{+t}{+h} seam became operational this fiscal. Janhjra of 1.7 mt in ECL is at an advanced stage of commissioning.
CIL is implementing three more longwall projects at BCCL of 6.5 mt capacity. Tenders have been floated for another 4 mt project at Borda and Murpur in WCL. If implemented, this will be India’s largest underground mine.
Plethora of issues CIL has a nearly 235 underground mines, most of which are a drag on the company’s balance-sheet. This is primarily due to disproportionately high deployment of manpower (as is most evident in ECL), low production and non-remunerative prices.
A previous proposal to close nearly a hundred mines in ECL couldn’t be implemented due to resistance from trade unions.
Not all underground mines can be mechanised, Debnath says. Mass production technologies require moving out people for the surface to subside and stabilise. Also, available technologies are suitable for deposits where coal seams are thick and run for kilometres without any faultlines.
In India, the reserves in ECL and BCCL areas are “drift origin coal”, characterised by multiplicity of seams, too many faultlines and inconsistent quality. Thus, they are not suitable for mechanisation. Moving people only adds to the problem.
New deposits Debnath, however, indicates that his team has got early indications of reserves that are suitable for opening world-scale (5-10 mt) underground projects. “CMPDI is now exploring and in the near future we may have some good deposits from Mand-Raigarh and main basin of Singrauli. Initial assessments are encouraging,” he added.