Private Sector Coal Mining in India/Andrew Scrymgeour and James Hitt, Norwest Mine Services, Inc., US, K.A. Sinha, formely Coal India Ltd and G. Ravi Chandran, Integrated Coal Mining Ltd, India, Discuss the development of the Indian coal industry

摘要

With a coal production figure last year of approximately 314 million t, India currently ranks third in the world behind China and the US. The country's total geological reserves, as of January 2002, stood at proven category, While the reserves shown in Figure 1 are fairly widely distributed over 13 of India's 28 states, the eastern states are the principal coal-bearing areas. Non-coking coals amount to approximately 86 percent of total resources. The first coal mining activity in India was conducted in 1774 in the Raniganj coalfield of West Bengal by the East India Co. Coal was transported by boat to Calcutta. Production was initially sporadic but gradually increased to meet the requirements of the company. In 1840 steam boats were introduced on the Ganges, which further increased demand.