Korba coalfield

Korba coalfield

The Korba coalfield, with a proved coal reserve of 2000 million tonnes, has been identified as the coalfield with the highest potential in India. It is the largest coal producing area of South Eastern Coalfield Limited and supplies coal to the Korba Super Thermal Power Station (2100 MW), Balco Captive Power Plant (270 MW), and two power plants of the Madhya Pradesh State Electricity Board. The coal from here is also sent to cement, fertilizer, bricks, sponge iron, and other industries. The coal production in Korba area increased from 11 million tonnes in 1984/85 to 35 million tonnes in 1998/99 to meet existing demand of 36 million tonnes. This has been achieved by starting large-scale opencast mining projects. The demand is expected to further increase to 67 million tonnes in 2006/2007 .The total availability of coal in 2007 is 55.4 million tonnes as against the demand of 65 million tonnes. Thus there may be a shortfall of coal supply in the year 2006/2007 unless major initiatives are taken to expand the capacity of existing mines and to start operations in new mines. Table 1 Demand for coal from Korba coalfield (million tonne)

Industry	1998/99	2006/2007
Power (utilities)	30.41	60.61
Power (captive)	2.20	2.20
Sponge iron	1.04	0.96
Cement	1.95	3.00
Bricks and others	0.30	0.30
Colliery consumption	0.10	0.10
Total demand	36.00	67.17

Table 2 Current and projected production of coal from Korba coalfield (million tonne)

Projects	1998/99	2006/2007
Existing mines and completed projects
Manikpur OCP^a	2.00	2.00
Kusmunda OCP	5.10	6.00
Laxman OCP	3.05
Gevra OCP	18.00	12.00
Ongoing projects
Dipka expansion OCP	7.01	10.00
Project awaited		7.40
Project under formulation		18.00
Total availability	35.16	55.40

^aopen cast project

Table 3 Proximate analysis of coal seams

Coal seam	Thickness (metres)	Proximate analysis
Coal seam	Thickness (metres)	Moisture (%)	Ash (%)	Volatile matter (%)	Fixed carbon (%)	Useful heat value
Upper Kusmunda	21.0-36.5	6.1-7.6	27.6-39.1	23.1-27.0	36.2-41.8	2607-4042
Lower Kusmunda (top section)	30.8-45.2	4.9-7.4	28.3-42.2	23.3-25.4	32.4-40.7	3400-3973
Lower Kusmunda (bottom section)	3.1-16.1	5.7-7.8	24.6-35.5	25.2-26.5	32.4-40.7	3105-4403

Table 4 Ultimate analysis of coal seams

		Ultimate analysis
Coal Seam	Grade	Carbon (%)	Hydrogen (%)	Nitrogen (%)	Sulphur (%)	Oxygen (%)
Upper Kusmunda	F-E	78.5-80.3	4.7-5.0	1.4-2.0	0.4-1.3	12.0-14.3
Lower Kusmunda (top section)	F-E	79.6-81.1	4.6-5.3	1.4-2	0.5-1.0	11.1-13.3
Lower Kusmunda (bottom section)	F-D	81.0	5.1	1.6	0.6	11.7

Source Draft project report for Gevra expansion opencast project, CMPDIL (RI -V), 1998