CCL's First Highwall Mining will Take Place in the Dhori Area of Bermo. | Jharkhand | 23 Sep 2023

Why In News?

According to the information received from the media on September 21, 2023, the first highwall mining of CCL will be done in the Dhori area of CCL under Bermo Coal Plant in Bokaro district. Coal production from highwall mining is likely to start here by February-March 2024.

Key Points:

• According to the information, this highwall mining to be done in Amlo Mines of AADOCM in Dhori area will produce a total of 13 lakh tonnes of coal in three years.
• Every year 3.5 lakh tonnes of coal will be mined from here. There will be three lakh tonnes of coal production in the first year and 5-5 lakh tonnes annually in the subsequent years.
• It will have production like an underground mine's gallery. The size of the coal produced in this will be less than minus 100 mm and after being crushed, completely fresh coal will come out. This will come directly from the coal mines to the conveyor belt and from here will again fall on the surface. From here, this coal will be loaded in the tipper and will be sent to the siding and washery.
• Presently in Jharkhand, production is being done through highwall mining in Tata's Ghati Colliery. A total of 30 highwall mining is going to start across Coal India. Coal production will start with this technology from two in ICL and one in CCL in the Dhori area of Bermo.
• According to the information, due to the presence of villages and settlements on the upper surface of AADOCM's Amlo Mines where this highwall mining will be installed, space is not available. Also, blasting within 100 meters (about 328.08 ft) is also prohibited. In such a situation, high-wall mining will be carried out in Amlo Mines without removing villages and settlements and without clearing the land, i.e., without disturbing the surface.
• Like a gallery in an underground mine, a platform will be built inside the mines, on which the high wall machine will be installed, and production will begin.
• A new coking washery with the capacity to feed 3 lakh tonnes of coal annually is also going to be installed in Tarmi project of Dhori area. According to the management, apart from SDOCM, Amlo, Tarmi of Dhori area, coal produced from Kalyani Expansion Project will be fed into this washery. From here, Washery Grade-5 coal will go to the CHP, while Washery Grade-3 coal will remain in the Washery. From here it will then be sent to other places.
• Soon Kalyani Expansion Mines of 2 million capacity per year will also come into existence in the Dhori area, which is a 20-year project. After this, the coal production graph of the Dhori area will increase significantly, in view of which a washery and CHP are being constructed here.
• According to Dhori regional management, coal production will start in any case by February-March of 2024 from the closed previous mines under Dhori area. A total of 98 acres will produce 20 lakh tonnes of coal, while the entire Pichchi mines are 459 acres (about twice the total floor space of the Pentagon), with 28-30 million tonnes of coal, which is a 16-year project.