Highwall Mining in India
S.K. Dixit1 and Manoj Pradhan2
1
South Eastern Coalfields Ltd., India
2
National Institute of Technology, Raipur, India
Abstract. Coal has been recognized as the most important source of energy for
electricity generation in India. Currently the country produces more than 550
million tonnes of coal per year, more than 80% of which comes from opencast
mines. The demand of coal is increasing day by day. Despite of having the fourth
largest coal reserve and being the third largest coal producing country in the
world, India needs to import coal to meet its growing requirement. Most of the
opencast coal mines were started in early eighties in India. Many of these opencast
mines are reaching their pit limits. A significant amount of coal is blocked in non
workable thin seams, in the highwalls, below surface dwellings in these opencast
mines. Highwall mining is a proven technology in USA and Australia to extract
the blocked coal in thin non-workable seams and the coal blocked in the highwall
of opencast mines. In USA, highwall mining contributes about 4.0 % share of total
coal production. In India, the highwall mining is in the nascent stage. So far only
two highwall mining are being worked; one by Singreni Collieries Company Ltd
at RG II opencast project and other by South Eastern Coalfields Ltd at Sharda
opencast mine . Many projects have been identified by major coal producing
companies like Coal India Ltd, Tata Steel and Singreni Collieries Company Ltd.
for introduction of this technology. The future of highwall mining in India is
keyed to the success of these projects. This paper gives an overview of the
highwall mining technology deployed at Sharda opencast mine where two thin
seams are being extracted by this technology.
Keywords: Highwall, Auger mining, CHM, Web pillar, Barrier pillar.
1 Introduction
Coal renders more than half of India's power generation. More than half of the
country’s 223.3 gigawatt installed capacity is produced from coal [1]. India is the
world’s third-largest producer of coal. It has produced 557.5 million tonnes of coal
in 2012-13 [2]. Despite its abundant reserves of about 286 billion tonnes, the
world's fourth-largest, coal production in India has failed to keep pace with
demand. India imported 135 million tonnes of coal in the 2012-13[1] and is
struggling to raise domestic supplies. Environmental and land acquisition
constraints, the long drawn process in obtaining lease and clearances from the
government are the main snag in opening and operations of the new mines.
C. Drebenstedt and R. Singhal (eds.), Mine Planning and Equipment Selection, 175
DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-02678-7_18, © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2014
176 S.K. Dixit and M. Pradhan
More than 80 % of coal produced in India comes from opencast mines. Most of
the opencast coal mines were started in eighties and are reaching pit limits. A
significant amount of coal is blocked in non workable thin seams in the highwalls,
beneath the surface dwellings in these opencast mines. Highwall mining can
extend the life of these opencast mines. Also the coal blocked in the highwalls of
abandoned opencast mine can be extracted by this technology. In the current
Indian scenario where the hope of operating new mines is distant, the demands
need to be met through imports. Highwall mining offers a economic viability to
the existing projects and can narrow down the demand-supply gap of coal. To
explore the possibilities of introduction of highwall mining in India, this
technology was recently introduced at Sharda opencast mine of M/s South Eastern
Coalfields Ltd.
Around the world, highwall mining is a proven technology to mine coal from
the high walls of opencast mines in USA and Australia. More than 55 million
tonnes of coal is produced annually in USA using this technology [3]. About 100
highwall miners are working worldwide. In India, this technology is new and was
first introduced in Dec 2010 at Ramagudam II opencast project of M/s Singereni
Collieries Company Ltd. The second highwall miner was deployed in March 2011
at Sharda opencast mine of M/s South Eastern Coalfields Ltd.
2 Highwall Mining Systems
Highwall mining is a generic term for the mining of coals from the final highwall
of an opencast mine. It is a hybrid method of opencast and underground method.
Highwall is the final boundary of an opencast mine beyond which the economic
extraction of coal by opencast mining is not possible. Sometimes the presence of
some local surface constraints also restricts the further progress of opencast mine.
In highwall mining, a series of parallel rectangular, unsupported entries
separated by a narrow web pillars are made in the exposed coal seam in the
highwall of an opencast mine. The entries are made via a remote controlled
operated unmanned cutter head and coal transport system placed in front of the
highwall. Since all the personnel remain outside the entries, there is no need of
ventilation and support.
There are two variants of highwall mining systems- auger mining and
continuous highwall mining. Auger mining has been used for contour mining
since 1940. In auger mining, a circular cutter head much like a drill bit cuts the
coal and the coal is scrolled to the surface by a series of open spiral flights driven
from the launch vehicle. Continuous highwall miner (CHM) systems were
introduced in 1980 [4]. In CHM system, modified underground continuous miner
is used for cutting of coal and a material transfer mechanism using belt or screw
conveyors is used to transport the cut coal to surface.
Highwall mining methods are useful to mine the:
- Coal blocked in the highwalls of open cast mines due to un-economic
stripping ratio
