Coal news and updates

CIL to pursue UG on large scale if safety issues resolved

February 13: Coal India Ltd (CIL) has asked the Directorate General of Mining Safety (DGMS) to address its concerns about mine subsidence in case of underground mining, CIL Chairman S Narsing Rao said on February 13.

"DGMS should assure us about subsidence issues. We have asked them about our concerns. If this aspect can be taken care of, we should go ahead with increasing the scale of underground mining in future," Rao said at the inauguration of the 5th Asian Mining Congress in Kolkata.

He further said that currently, of the country's total production of around 600 million tons (mt), 500-520 mt come from opencast or surface mining. However, there is growing concern about forest diversion, environmental issues as well as rehabilitation of project affected people.

"A large part of this can be avoided if you go for UG mining," he added.