COAL MINING

Surface Coal Mining Operations & Mine Rehabilitation

Over 5990 million tonnes (Mt) of hard coal is currently produced worldwide and 913Mt of brown coal/lignite. The largest coal producing countries are not confined to one region - the top five hard coal producers are China, the USA, India, Australia and Indonesia. Much of global coal production is used in the country in which it was produced; only around 16% of hard coal production is destined for the international coal market.

Top Ten Hard Coal Producers (2009e)
PR China	2971Mt	South Africa	247Mt
USA	919Mt	Russia	229Mt
India	526Mt	Kazakhstan	96Mt
Australia	335Mt	Poland	78Mt
Indonesia	263Mt	Colombia	73Mt

Source: International Energy Agency 2010

Mining Methods

Coal is mined by two methods:

• surface or 'opencast' mining
• underground or 'deep' mining

The choice of mining method is largely determined by the geology of the coal deposit. Underground mining currently accounts for a bigger share of world coal production than opencast; although in several important coal producing countries surface mining is more common. For example, surface mining accounts for around 80% of production in Australia; while in the USA it is used for about 67% of production.

Surface Mining

Surface mining - also known as opencast or opencut mining - is only economic when the coal seam is near the surface. This method recovers a higher proportion of the coal deposit than underground mining as all coal seams are exploited - 90% or more of the coal can be recovered.

Large opencast mines can cover an area of many square kilometres and use very large pieces of equipment, including:

• draglines, which remove the overburden
• power shovels
• large trucks, which transport overburden and coal
• bucket wheel excavators
• conveyors

The overburden of soil and rock is first broken up by explosives; it is then removed by draglines or by shovel and truck. Once the coal seam is exposed, it is drilled, fractured and systematically mined in strips. The coal is then loaded on to large trucks or conveyors for transport to either the coal preparation plant or direct to where it will be used.

Underground Mining

There are two main methods of underground mining: room-and-pillar and longwall mining.

Room & Pillar Mining

In room-and-pillar mining, coal deposits are mined by cutting a network of 'rooms' into the coal seam and leaving behind 'pillars' of coal to support the roof of the mine. These pillars can be up to 40% of the total coal in the seam - although this coal can sometimes be recovered at a later stage.

Longwall Mining

Longwall mining involves the full extraction of coal from a section of the seam, or 'face' using mechanical shearers. A longwall face requires careful planning to ensure favourable geology exists throughout the section before development work begins. The coal 'face' can vary in length from 100-350m. Self-advancing, hydraulically-powered supports temporarily hold up the roof while coal is extracted. When coal has been extracted from the area, the roof is allowed to collapse. Over 75% of the coal in the deposit can be extracted from panels of coal that can extend 3km through the coal seam.

Technological advancements have made coal mining today more productive than it has ever been. To keep up with technology and to extract coal as efficiently as possible modern mining personnel must be highly skilled and well-trained in the use of complex, state-of-the-art instruments and equipment.

The Largest Hard Coal Produces:

China

USAIndia
Australia
South Africa
Russia
Indonesia
Poland
Kazakhstan
Colombia

Read more: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Top_10_countries_produce_coal#ixzz1PRBOnmw5

New Indonesia coal pricing policy worries India power firms

MINING.com Editor | June 14, 2011 

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The Financial Chronicle reports on Tuesday Tata Power, Adani group, Lanco Infratech and Reliance Power, among other Indian coal importers, are waiting to assess the impact of the Indonesian government attempts to benchmark its coal prices to international indices. The new system has the potential to increase the cost of thermal power generated using imported coal in India.

The new method that will come into effect from September attempts to link the royalties paid to the Indonesian government to an index of coal prices for Australian and South African coal in addition to others. But Indian firms said Indonesian coal is of lower calorific value and, hence, priced cheaper compared with Australian and South African coal.

Itochu Corp. (8001.TO, ITOCY) has agreed to pay $1.52 billion to buy a 20% stake in a Drummond Colombian coal mining operation

Privately held U.S. coal company Drummond Co. Inc. said Thursday that Japanese trading house Itochu Corp. (8001.TO, ITOCY) has agreed to pay $1.52 billion to buy a 20% stake in a Drummond Colombian coal mining operation with proven and probable reserves of approximately 2 billion net tons.

In a statement, Birmingham, Alabama-based Drummond, the largest merchant coke producer in the U.S., said the deal will help finance an investment program designed to boost exports from the South American country. Current production is approximately 27 million net tons per year.

Projected investment in Colombia over the next five years will be over $1.3 billion, Drummond said, in line with moves mandated by a Colombian government decree which will increase export capacity to 40-45 million net tons per year in the future.

Under the terms of the deal, Drummond will own 80% and Itochu 20% of a new joint venture company, Drummond International, LLC. Drummond International will own and operate Colombian coal mining operations and transportation infrastructure currently owned 100% by Drummond, and Itochu will obtain rights to market coal produced by the Colombian operations into Japan.

Drummond commenced coal production in Colombia in 1995, exporting all of its production there as thermal coal. The company said its reserves in Colombia have high calorific value, low sulfur and low ash.

Drummond said in its statement that it has links with Itochu dating back to the 1960s, when Drummond exported U.S. metallurgical coal to Japan. The U.S. coal company said it will continue to seek opportunities for unspecified "joint investments and other strategic alliances" with Itochu. 

ICVL eyes 59% stake in Mozambique coal firm

State-run International Coal Ventures Pvt. Ltd (ICVL) is evaluating an opportunity to buy a 59% stake, estimated to cost around $1 billion (Rs.4,490 crore), in Minas de Revuboé, which owns the Revuboé coal mining project in Mozambique.
ICVL is considering to acquire this stake currently owned by Australia’s Talbot Group. The greenfield metallurgical coal mining project, with an estimated reserves of 700 million tonnes (mt), is owned by Minas De Revuboé, with Talbot Group being the project manager. Other stakeholders in the company are South Korean steel maker Posco, Japan’s Nippon Steel and the Mozambique government.
“Talbot Group’s stake is on offer. We are evaluating the opportunity for submitting a non-binding bid,” said an ICVL executive, who did not want to be identified.
Rothschild is the merchant banker for the deal.
Another top ICVL executive, who also requested anonymity, confirmed the proposal but declined to comment further.
ICVL was set up by five state-owned firms—NTPC Ltd, Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL), Coal India Ltd, Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd and NMDC Ltd—to secure coal assets overseas and has been competing with Chinese coal miners such as China Shenhua Energy Co. Ltd and Yanzhou Coal Mining Co. Ltd, which are actively buying overseas mining concessions.
While Talbot Group could not be contacted, questions emailed to the spokespersons of Minas de Revuboé and Rothschild’s Mumbai office on Friday remained unanswered at the time of going to press.
Indian businesses have in recent years made inroads into the mining and cashew processing industries in Mozambique, a former Portuguese colony, which has seen stable administration since the end of a civil war in the early 1990s.
India does not have substantial good quality metallurgical coal reserves. Demand for the resource in 2009-10 was 40 mt, of which 23 mt was imported. Demand is expected to rise to nearly 90 mt by 2020.
There has been a growing demand for metallurgical coal due to the growth expected in the steel sector. Australia, emerging as a major source of India’s mineral imports, is the largest exporter of metallurgical coal in the world.
While private Indian firms have been successful in securing coal resources overseas, government-owned entities such as ICVL and NTPC have not been successful. Bids by Indian miners tend to be relatively uncompetitive because most Indian companies seek the coal for their own end-use projects, while rival bidders may have higher-margin alternative plans.
“There is no reason why the public sector units can’t secure assets. In fact, they have a much better chance as they have access to government’s support,” said Shubhranshu Patnaik, senior director, energy and resources, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu India Pvt. Ltd.
India has a known coal gross resource base of 264,000 mt, the fourth largest in the world, of which proven reserves are around 101,000 mt. Demand is around 600 mt per annum (mtpa), which is set to touch 2,340 mtpa by 2030.

Arch Coal completes acquisition of International Coal Group

June 2011

Arch Coal has completed its acquisition of International Coal Group through a merger, with ICG becoming a wholly owned subsidiary of Arch. The aggregate value of the transaction totalled $3.4 billion. The acquisition adds nearly 13 Mt of low-cost Appalachian thermal coal production to Arch’s vast domestic thermal coal portfolio, solidifying the company’s number two position among US-based coal miners. With expected metallurgical coal sales of 11 Mt in 2011, Arch also becomes the second largest US metallurgical coal producer and a top ten global supplier to steelmakers. By capitalising on expansion opportunities, Arch expects to boost its metallurgical coal output to nearly 15 Mt by 2015.

The company stated that it expects to leverage its dedicated throughput capacity, logistics capabilities and strategic relationships to expand export shipments via the East Coast, West Coast and Gulf of Mexico to further penetrate and participate in the global growth markets. “We are pleased with the swift and successful completion of the ICG transaction, which will add tremendous value for Arch’s stakeholders in the coming years,” said Steven Leer, Arch’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. “This acquisition extends Arch’s reach into every major US coal supply basin, enhances our low-cost and leadership position in core operating regions and creates a world-class global thermal and metallurgical coal franchise poised for growth.”

Coal now accounts for 30% of global energy use, highest since 1970

Frik Els | June 15, 2011 

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According to the latest annual BP Statistical Review of World Energy coal’s share of global energy consumption rose to 29.6% last year the highest since 1970 and up from 25.6% a decade ago.

BP said coal consumption grew by 7.6% in 2010 the fastest growth rate since 2003. China which overtook the US as the world largest energy consumer saw its consumption grow by 10% and consumed nearly half of the global coal total of 3.55 billion tonnes of oil equivalent.

The next largest consumer was the US with 524.6 million toe or 14.8% of the world consumption followed by India with a 7.8% share of the total. Even Europe showed coal consumption growth of 3.8%.

Global coal production grew by 6.3%, with China (+9% to 3.24 billion tonnes) again accounting for two-thirds of global growth. The US was the second-largest producer with 984.6 million tonnes followed by India Australia, Russia and Indonesia. Although the UK production was up by 1.8% to 535.7 million tonnes, production fell by 1.1% in the EU which helped explain the relative strength of European coal prices.

In comparison to coal global hydroelectric and nuclear output each saw the strongest increases since 2004. Hydroelectric output grew by 5.3%, with China accounting for more than 60% of global growth due to a combination of new capacity and wet weather.

Worldwide nuclear output grew by 2%, with three-quarters of the increase coming from OECD countries. French nuclear output rose by 4.4%, accounting for the largest volumetric increase in the world.

Other renewable energy sources continued to grow rapidly. Global biofuels production in 2010 grew by 13.8%, or 240,000 b/d, constituting one of the largest sources of liquids production growth in the world. Growth was driven by the US (+140,000 b/d, or 17%) and Brazil (+50,000 b/d, or 11.5%).

Renewable energy used in power generation grew by 15.5%, driven by continued robust growth in wind energy (+22.7%). The increase in wind energy in turn was driven by China and the US, which together accounted for nearly 70% of global growth. These forms of renewable energy accounted for 1.8% of global energy consumption, up from 0.6% in 2000.

Download the full report here.