Mechanization of Room Pillar Mines with Special Emphasis on Application within Coal India

摘要

India is in the process of fast economic change. The coal mining sector is of utmost importance contributing vastly to the overall Indian energy demand. The coal sector consists of a huge number of mines, most of them are controlled and owned by the Indian state through Coal India Ltd. (CIL) with the headquarter in Kolkata. The total Indian coal production amounts to about 310 Mill. T. By this India ranks third amongst the world coal producer. The Raniganj coalfield is one of the largest mining areas of India and provides a variety of different coal seams with thickness ranges between 1m and 24m. At present most mines are working on the shallow part of the deposit. Many of the mines are operated with a large number of work force due to the predominantly manual workings. In principle the mining method of room-and-pillar is applied underground and widely accepted due to safety reasons and suitable to the Indian underground mining conditions. Mechanization at some mines which is introduced to improve the mine's infrastructure still has limited economic benefits due to the low rate of production at the face. Current productivity at many mines is below 200 t per man-year and comparatively low by international standards. Thus, the mechanization of room-and-pillar mining becomes more and more important in order to increase outputs and productivity and to improve the economics of Indian mining. There are a variety of different mining equipment manufacturers providing equipment which is suitable to be operated at very productive room-and-pillar mines in the US and Australia. There, outputs of more than a million tons per year are achieved from just one single super section. The equipment needs for Indian mines are somewhat different and require a more targeted setup to the Indian mining conditions. Besides advanced drilling and blasting technology with mechanized roof bolting, coal loading and hauling the Continuous Mining (CM) technology with place-change machines, separate bolting technology and suitable transport & haulage equipment is applicable to India. According to individual conditions there is a difference in equipment and machine size. Under normal to good conditions it may be possible to double the average output of a typical Indian underground coal mine and to provide much more safety by using mechanized method of mining. In order to facilitate higher rates of foreign mining equipment imports more flexible rules regarding customs, specification allowances, installation and financing procedures will have to be installed. In case of larger mining equipment use the foreign mining equipment manufacture need to establish sales and service centers providing jobs for local people, who are in the mining industry and knowing the conditions at best.