coal mining news-

India to sell eight coal mines in January 2016

20 November 2015

The Indian Government has announced plans to offer eight coal mines for auction in January 2016 in a bid to boost production.

Coal secretary Anil Swarup told media that the country aims to increase coal output to 1.5 billion tonnes this decade.

The blocks are planned to be offloaded to private steel, cement and electricity companies, which are expected to have as much as 500 million tonnes (Mt) of coal production capacity a year by 2020.

Cancellation of the practice involves assigning of the mines to private companies on a selective basis by the Supreme Court. In September 2014, the government was compelled to sell them through auctions.

Reuters reported that companies such as Adani Power and the GMR Group have won coal mines in three rounds of auctions.

"These mines are expected to have total reserves of 1,143 million tonnes."

As part of the fourth round of auction, mines in the Indian states of Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Maharashtra and West Bengal would be put up for auction, Swarup said.

Together these mines are expected to have total reserves of 1,143Mt, with peak production estimated at 12.9Mt.

Swarup was quoted by The Times of India as saying: "It has been decided to auction eight Schedule III coal mines earmarked for non-regulated sectors like iron and steel, cement and captive power plants in the fourth tranche.

"The e-auction for these mines will be held from 18 January to 22 January 2016."

In a separate announcement, India's cabinet has cleared the sale of another 10% interest in Coal India and expects to raise $3bn.

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Image: Coal mines in Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Maharashtra and West Bengal would be put up for auction. Photo: courtesy of dan/FreeDigitalPhotos.net.

Coal Mining News-21 killed and one missing

BEIJING: A late-night fire at a coal mine killed 21 people and left one missing in the northeastern Chinese province of Heilongjiang, local authorities and state media said Saturday.

The fire at the Xinghua mine in the city of Jixi was brought under control on Saturday, and 21 bodies were recovered at the mine, owned by the Heilongjiang Longmay Mining Holding Group, the official Xinhua News Agency said.

The provincial work safety administration confirmed the incident and the death toll on Saturday.

A work safety employee who only gave his family name of Xing, as is customary with low-ranking Chinese bureaucrats, said rescuers were searching for the missing person.

Xinhua said 38 miners were working underground when an angle belt caught fire on Friday night and that 16 people were pulled out to safety.

Xinhua did not say what caused the fire.

This is the deadliest mine incident since April this year, when a water leak at a coal mine killed 21 people in the northern city of Datong in Shanxi province.

China’s mines have long been the world’s deadliest, but safety improvements have reduced deaths in recent years.

Last year, 931 people were killed in mine accidents throughout China, drastically down from the year 2002, when nearly 7,000 miners were killed.


coal mining news-WCL's roadmap for opening 36 mines/ projects in 36 months

Shri Piyush Goyal, Union Minister of State (IC) for Power, Coal and New & Renewable Energy said that In order to help CIL to achieve its stupendous coal production target of one billion tonnes by FY 2020, Western Coalfields Limited is planning to enhance its coal production by 150%. Shri Goyal was speaking after unveiling WCL's roadmap for opening 36 mines/ projects in 36 months here today.

Lauding WCL for resetting its goal from 60 mt to 100 mt of coal production by 2020, the Minister said that enhancing coal production will help in providing electricity to the deprived parts of the country. The Minister congratulated team WCL for acquiring 2500 hectare land and generating 1300 direct employment opportunities to the farmers who have given their land in last one year. Shri Goyal added that the enhanced production will not only fulfill coal demand of Maharashtra but will also provide relief to the southern areas of the country. He hoped that through the pace with which coal mines are opening, the dream of providing 24x7 affordable power for all will become reality.

Shri Anil Swarup, Secretary, Ministry of Coal, Shri S. Bhattacharya, CMD Coal India, Dr. A.K. Dubey, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Coal, Shri R.R. Mishra, CMD, WCL, former CMDs of WCL and senior officers of Ministry of Coal and WCL were also present on the occasion.

BACKGROUND

Known as one of the best subsidiary of Coal India Limited once upon a time, Western Coalfields Limited (WCL), started registering negative growth after 2009-10 from the level of 45.74 Million Tonnes coal production and the company was registering operational losses since last three years. The company was about to be referred to BIFR and there was no hope seen of further progress. Land acquisition for new projects and negativity among the employees were the major issues. There were no viable plans for opening new projects. No new big project was opened during last ten years. During October - November 2014 the company started thinking on different lines and after extensive exercise taken till now & still under progress the company could identify substantial number of viable projects with the help of Ministry of Coal, Coal India and other authorities.

A Vision document was prepared by WCL with the timelines as a guiding map, which enabled WCL to open new projects with monthly deadlines. The trust building initiatives with villagers enabled WCL to achieve tremendous success in record physical possession of 2650 Ha land during last one year against 2620 Ha land in last ten (10) years was acquired.WCL generated 1300 employments against land during last one year against, 941 in last 10 years and distributed land Compensation of Rs. 525 crore in last one year against total of Rs. 60 crore in last 10 years. Posting excellent performance by opening one project mine every month, it has already opened 10 projects in last 10 months. It has geared up to take a challenge of opening thirty six (36) projects in thirty six (36) months, a sort of world record.

Team WCL is forging ahead by fine tuning its policies and taking all stake holders on board through wide consultation. The tireless efforts, innovative initiatives, speedy approval of Project Reports, improved land acquisition & possession processes enabled WCL to open 10 new projects from January 2015 to October 2015. With this successful experience, the company fixed the timeline for opening of another 26 new and replacement projects. With this, WCL is geared up to build up capacity of 100 MT by 2019-20.Further Team WCL is also aiming to join 100 MT club with proposed allocation of coal property beyond its command area.

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RM/PS