Coal news and updates

CIL expects 10-20 mt ‘incremental’ output from existing mines

September 10: Coal India Ltd (CIL) expects to garner incremental production of 10-20 million tons (mt) from its existing mines as the Ministry of Environment & Forests (MoEF) has given the miner the go-ahead to augment production beyond the rated capacities for those mines, CIL Chairman A K Dubey said on September 10.

“The Ministry of Environment & Forests has given approval for incremental mining from some existing mines. There were certain calculations that you cannot go beyond this much of production from a particular mine. Beyond that level, you had to take all the clearances afresh. Now they have allowed us that,” Dubey said on the sidelines of the 40th annual general meeting of CIL in Kolkata.

He further said: “For the time being we will start with 10 mt of incremental production and this may go up to 20 mt this year. This is a substantial quantity. Even at 10 mt of incremental production, we will be able to feed 2,000 MW of additional thermal (power) capacity.”

The approval has come as the government made changes in the forest clearance policy for select mines that were capable of increasing production beyond their permitted capacity, he added.