The continued depletion of surface coal reserves across its operating zone is compelling Eastern Coalfields Ltd to go back to underground mining, a practice avoided over the last two decades due to high overhead production costs.
Coal India, ECL’s parent body, too has started exploring expansion of underground coal production from its mines to 100 million tonnes by 2030 as the country strives to meet growing power demand, senior officials said. ECL plans to ramp up underground mine production to 20 million tonnes by 2028, which is more than double its current production of 8.5 million tonnes.
ECL targets to produce a total of 58 million tonnes by the end of the current fiscal year. Its chairman cum managing director, Satish Jha, told The Statesman: “We have prepared a roadmap for 27 million tonnes of production exclusively from the UG mines by 2035.”
Jha added: “For some strategic alterations, we have decided to stress on extensive modernisation and automation to help scale up production. This will be aided with revenue-sharing models with private players to help operationalise the closed mines, the aim being to extract the untapped coal reserves lying idle over the years.”
The PSU coal company that gears up its machinery to revitalise the UG mines, meanwhile, has decided to close down six loss-making underground mines so as to manage high structural legacy costs. ECL currently operates 80 coalmines. Of them, 48 are UG mines, 23 open cast projects (OCPs) and 9 mixed mines. ECL’s Pandaveswar Area runs 19 mines, the highest number, contributing 31.83 million tonnes annually. “We produce high-quality G4 (grade 4) coal that is mainly destined to the power sector,” said Anand Mohan, chief general manager, Pandaveswar Area.
“The country is on a high-orbit growth projectile, expanding industrially and economically,” a senior CIL official said. “Coal continues to play a key role in the country’s economic growth and development. For this, all our subsidiaries need to enhance productivity up to the highest possible degree, and that is what the ECL and its neighbouring BCCL (Bharat Coking Coal) are entrusted to pursue with.” ECL has prioritised revamping old UG mines at Khottadihi, Kumardihi – B, Shyamsundarpur, Tilaboni, Siduli, Parasia-Belbaid and Jhanjra immediately.
The BCCL too has envisaged exploring its veteran UG mines. The subsidiary plans to produce 46 million tonnes by the end of 2025-26 financial year. It’s collaborating with Mine Developer and Operators (MDO) to leverage advanced technology.
Most domestic coal production however comes from open cast projects globally. The ministry plans to triple output from its underground coal mines by 2028 in an attempt to revive an industry that has been in decline for decades. According to CIL sources, UG production in the country is relatively low, which stands at 4 per cent of total production. Globally, major coal producers heavily rely on UG production.
Challenges like land acquisition, environmental concerns, besides the major issue of depletion of the shallow reserves across the Raniganj Coalfields have compelled the PSU major to go back to UG routes. Safety issues, higher cost of production were the prime reasons why ECL had nearly shelved the expansion of the UG path earlier.