PRODUCTION PERFORMANCE

 TECHNOLOGY ADOPTED FOR MINING OF COAL

 A. UNDERGROUND MINING

1. Bord and Pillar - The Underground mines are worked mainly by conventional Bord and Pillar method, manually as well as semi-mechanized using SDLs/LHDs.

2. Longwall Mining – Mining at Moonidih Project is being carried out by highly mechanized Longwall system of mining.

 B. OPEN CAST MINING

     Open cast mines are worked mainly by Shovel-Dumper combination. Two Draglines, one at Block-II OCP and another at South Tisra/North Tisra OCP, are also in operation. Other Heavy Earth Moving Machineries (HEMM) includes Drills, Dozers, Road Graders, Sprinklers, etc.

COAL PRODUCTION TREND

 The trend of coal production in Bharat Coking Coal Limited since 1974-75 is shown in the table below. Production just after nationalization was 17.74 MT which has grown considerably over the following years.

COAL PRODUCTION PROGRAMME (TARGET)

 Physical Performance during 2008-09

 The physical performance of the company during the year 2008-09 is as given below:                                                                                                                                                ( Provisional)

CONSTRAINTS

The problem of fire and subsidence together with high population density and unabated growth of human settlements and townships has made the coalfield one of most difficult and challenging. Proper exploitation of coal is hampered due to following constraints:

·       Difficult geo-mining condition due unpredictable presence of geological disturbance like faults, dykes, sills, igneous intrusive, pyrolitizations of seams etc apart from wide variation in seam configuration and geometry, steep gradient etc

·       Many seams are highly gassy and susceptible for spontaneous heating

·       The Coalfield is densely populated having large township like Jharia, Karkend, Katras, Bhowra, Patherdih with high population density Presence of large number of human settlements since decades in coal bearing area   preclude mining and also limit the equipment size of opencast projects.

·       The protective measures for dealing with fire and subsidence becomes difficult due to illegal occupants and their unwillingness to vacate in spite of notices and repeated requests

·       Presence of large number of surface and underground water bodies in developed and abandoned workings, some of them are affected by fire/subsidence thus endangering workings belowground and also attract special statutory restrictions on operating mines. BCCL is pumping out about 20 tones of water for every tonne of coal produced which adds to the cost of mining by about 160 Crore per annum.

·       Presence of large network of road and railway lines, some of which has been endangered due to fire and subsidence

·       Presence of 67 number of fires with potential to expand in areas and numbers

·       Presence of surface features like railway lines, river/jores, townships along with waterlogged upper horizons and fire necessitate sand stowing making the cost of mining prohibitive.

·       Unscientific mining process and unstowed workings in the past have resulted in serious problem of subsidence endangering safety of railway lines, roads, jores and buildings.

·       Large scale mechanization in virgin seams is not possible due to overlying developed seams which are either waterlogged/ collapsed/ fire.

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