Adriyala underground coal mine set to start commercial production

The Adriyala longwall underground mining project of Telengana-based Singareni Collieries Company is expected to start commercial production in a month.

Saturday, October 11 was a red-letter day for the $190-million project as coal started coming up the conveyor belt from the underground mine. The project is now being test-run.

Initially, the mine will produce around 1.5 million tonnes of coal per annum (mtpa), nearly 0.5 mt more than the largest underground mines operated by Coal India and Monnet Ispat in the country produce.

Over time, Adriyala’s production will increase to a record 2.8 mtpa, adequate to generate around 500 MW electricity at NTPC’s Ramagundam power station in Telangana.

Underground mines are environmentally more sustainable than opencast mines, the mainstay of mining operations in India.

Globally, there are many underground mines with 5 mtpa capacity and above, especially in Australia and China. The largest of them, at Raspadskaya, Russia, produces 8.9 mtpa. Anglo-Australian multinational BHP Billiton now proposes to open a 10 mtpa mine in the fertile Liverpool plains in Australia.

Opencast mines can be much larger. Coal India’s Gevra mine in Chhattisgarh is Asia’s largest opencast project with 35 mtpa capacity. And, there are many opencast mines of over 10 mtpa in India.

Lack of long-term planning, need for rapid increase in coal production and low technology acquisition have shifted the focus from underground mining to opencast production.

In 2013-14, Coal India produced only 36 mt coal from underground, less than 8 per cent of its total production of 464 mt. The scene is now up for some change.

First, the 54-mtpa Singareni Collieries has exhausted most of its opencast reserves in the Godavari basin and is now focusing on underground mining.

It has already lined up another 3.5 mtpa project at Kakatiya Khani, Andhra Pradesh.

But a much bigger change is brewing at Coal India.

The 1 mtpa Jhanjhra underground mine in West Bengal recently completed a project to expand its capacity to 1.5 mtpa.

Besides, a 1.7-mtpa longwall project is under implementation to take the total capacity of Jhanjra to 3.2 mtpa in two years.

Other Coal India subsidiaries, too, are catching up with the trend. Bilaspur-based South Eastern Coalfields will step up capacity of its Churcha mine in Odisha to 1 mtpa this year.

Dhanbad-based Bharat Coking Coal is working on two 2 mtpa projects through contract mining.

Overall, the company is expecting its underground production to increase by 1-2 mt every year from 2014-15.

What is more important, on September 22 the national miner issued a tender for a consultant to suggest ways for introducing latest mining technologies in its underground mines.

Coal India has nearly 273 underground mines, mostly in West Bengal and Jharkhand, where 20-25 per cent of its employees work.

Most of these mines are making huge losses due to low production and high manpower deployment.

Past efforts to close down nearly half of the mines were unsuccessful due to opposition from unions.

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