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India's poor run in mass production from underground coal mines may witness a facelift in next two years.
While the Andhra Pradesh State undertaking Singareni Collieries Company Ltd (SCCL) has lined up two projects of 3.5 million tonnes (Adriala) and 2.7 mt (KTK); Bharat Coking Coal Ltd, a subsidiary of Coal India, is moving forward to implement two projects of over 2 mt each in Jharkhand. All the projects are expected to be on stream by 2013-14.
Open-cast mines
According to sources, having exhausted open-cast growth opportunities, SCCL is now aggressively looking forward to opportunities to ramp up production from underground assets.
Longwall mining
As a major step in this direction, the company is now in an advanced stage of awarding the financial contract to Bucyrus DBT for supply of longwall mining equipment for the Adriala project.
“We have recently tested prototypes of some key equipment to be supplied by the Bucyrus DBT and suggested due modifications. We are expecting to clear the deal soon,” a company source said adding that the project will be completed by September 2013.
SCL sources confirm that the implementation of 2.7 mt Kakatiyakhani (KTK) project outsourced to a joint venture of Indu Projects and Bucyrus is also progressing on schedule.
The long-wall mine is expected to be operational by December 2013.
Though tested its hands with long-wall and other mass production technologies quite early, the CIL family as such could make much progress in ramping up underground production so far.
The track record is now set to be improved at BCCL which has already short-listed outsourcing contractors for Moonidih and Muraidih mines. “Both the projects are awaiting final stages of regulatory and other approvals and will be kicked off in next couple of months,” a company source said.
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