Prospects of Longwall Mining Under Shallow Depths of Cover in India

摘要

India is the only major coal producing nation in the world with about 45% of its total coal reserve lying within 250m from the Earth's surface, which has prompted phenomenal growth in open cast mining of coal during the post nationalization period. Just in contrast, the underground coal mining in India has practically remained stagnant, rather declined, within this time both in terms of quantity of production and technological implementation. But presently in the changing global scenario in general and in India in particular concerning sustainable development framework in mining, a radical change in Indian coal mining industry has become imperative, which necessitates striking a balance between open cast and underground mining of coal. In this particular context it is required to consider the perspectives for the application of the state of the art underground coal mining technologies in India with special reference to the fact that a large segment of Indian coal deposit is lying under a comparatively shallow depth of cover. In this article attempt has been made to define shallow depth for the specific purpose of deploying Powered Support Longwall Technology with safety and efficiency.