Coal news and updates

CIL to hike OB removal to 2,500 mcm by 2020

February 25: In order to achieve the ambitious 1-billion tons of coal production by 2019-20, Coal India Ltd (CIL) will need to increase its overburden (OB) removal by about 150% over the next five years, the company said.

By 2019-20, the state-owned miner would require to increase its OB removal to 2,500 million cubic meters (mcm) as against about 1,000 mcm currently, the company said in a recent presentation to the Ministry of Coal (MoC).

It further said the average stripping ratio is envisaged to increase from the current level of 1:8 to 2:75 in 2019-20.

Where strengthening exploration is concerned, CIL envisages usage of more numbers of hydrostatic drill rigs, adoption of 2D, 3D seismic surveys with high resolution and advance software tools for geological modelling and mine planning.