Showing posts with label Coal Mines. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Coal Mines. Show all posts

China Suspends New Coal Mining Sites Until 2019 to curb Pollution

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China, world’s largest coal producer will not approve any new coal mines for the next three years, according to the state-run Xinhua News Agency, which on Tuesday quoted Nur Bekri, the head of the National Energy Administration, in a report.
The new policy underscores the government's effort to clean up air quality, a point of contention that has greatly fueled public grievances in recent years.
The government has also readjusted its targeted energy mix for 2016. Under the new blueprint, non-fossil fuels will make up 13.2% of the country's energy, an increase from 12% this year. The ratio of natural gas will also increase to 6.2% from 6% while coal usage will be reduced to 62.6% from around 64.4% this year.
Oversupply and lower demand have already dragged coal prices down to multiyear lows.
China's benchmark power coal price increased 1 yuan per tonne to average at 372 yuan per tonne from December 16-22, according to the Bohai-Rim Steam-Coal Price Index.
"The government's renewed push to phase out coal use will only keep coal prices further depressed," said Gao Jian, an analyst at SCI International, a Shandong-based energy firm.
While coal-fired power in China has gradually abated in recent years in tandem with the country's slowing manufacturing sector, coal is still largely responsible for China's power generation, and China comprises nearly half of the world's coal consumption. As a result, many parts of the country, including Beijing and Shanghai, continue to grapple with toxic smog that shrouds cities, sometimes for days at a time.
Earlier this month, the capital city of Beijing issued its highest-level pollution alert for the first time when the air-quality index topped 300. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said an index reading above 300 is "extremely rare" in the U.S. and generally occurs only during events such as forest fires.
"Due to environment concerns, the government has been quite aggressive in introducing renewable energy into the market, but it might take a long time before we see a real shift because prices will remain as the main factor determining people's habit," said Li Li, director of research at Guangzhou-based ICIS.
For the next five years, the Chinese government also aims to add over 20 million kilowatts of installed wind power and more than 15 million kilowatts of installed photovoltaic power, the National Energy Administration said in a statement online.

Source: Nasdaq

JSPL to resume mining at Australian coal mines

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Jindal Steel and Power (JSPL) will resume mining coal from two of its stalled projects in Australia as it expects to get regulatory clearances from Canberra soon, its chief executive said.

JSPL holds majority stakes in Wollongong Coal Ltd (WLC) which used to operate Russell Vale Colliery and Wongawilli Colliery in the Southern Coalfields Region of New South Wales.

WCL had to suspend operations at its Russell Vale Colliery in September because of regulatory issues. Wongawilli Colliery was shut for maintenance in August but it now needs government approvals to restart mining.

"Once we get these necessary clearances, we aim to start mining at Wongawilli by end-March and at Russell Vale by June," Ravi Uppal told in an interview.

The mining and environmental clearances are likely to come soon, Uppal said.

JSPL bought majority stakes in WCL in 2013 to mine coal, mostly for its operations in India.

Russell Vale Colliery and Wongawilli Colliery have a combined reserve of 500 million tonnes and WCL initially expects to mine a million and a half tonnes from each one of them per year, Uppal said.

Separately, Uppal said India's steel demand is expected to grow at 8-10 percent a year from the next fiscal year beginning in April due to industrial expansion and spending on infrastructure.
Steel demand in India is currently growing at 4 percent a year, according to government and industry estimates.

New Delhi would have to curb cheaper steel imports to boost local demand, he said.

India this month slapped import duties for five years on some stainless steel imports from China, the European Union and the United States to protect local industry.

Source: Reuters

Rock stethoscope to control mining accidents

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A stethoscope-like instrument will soon be deployed in mines for predicting movement of rocks during excavation and minimize the risk of mining accidents. 

Developed by IIT Kharagpur researchers, the "Instrumented Rock Bolt" can forecast vital information of rock movement before any unwanted accident occurs. 

Field trials at Asansol coal mines of West Bengal have yielded positive results after which experiments would soon be done in the copper mines of Madhya Pradesh. 

"The instrument will collect data on the health of the rock just like a stethoscope. It will then be analyzed using geocomputing technology. People who are excavating for mining or making a tunnel for a hydropower project will then know which rock is risky and to what extent," Prof Debasis Deb of the department of mining engineering at IIT Kharagpur told PTI. 

A part of this project is funded by the Central Mine Planning and Design Institute (CMPDI), a subsidiary of Coal India Limited. 

IIT-Kgp and CMPDI have already filed a joint patent for the instrument. 

"We are getting good response but the technology needs further validation before it is released in the market for commercial use. We hope that the entire system will be ready in the next two years," the scientist said. 

IIT-Kgp researchers are also collaborating with fellows from the MIT who are currently employing the same methods for shale gas exploration.

Source: TOI

Coal mine fire in northeast China kills 21

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The entrance of a coal mine where a fire accident happened in Jixi, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, Nov. 21, 2015.
Twenty-one workers were killed today when a fire engulfed a state-owned coal mine in China's northeast Heilongjiang province, one of the deadliest accidents to hit the world's largest coal producer. 

One missing mine worker was located safely. 

Rescuers have found bodies of 21 workers after a coal mine caught fire in Jixi city of the province late last evening, state-run Xinhua news agency reported. 

A total of 38 miners were working down in the shaft when the fire broke out at the mine in Jixi city operated by the state-owned Heilongjiang Longmay Mining Holding Group. 16 of them managed to escape. 

The government said the fire was under control and no secondary disaster had been reported. 

President of the mining group Hao Fukun said rescuers could reach the missing miner by midnight. The report, however, did not mention the condition of the missing person who was safely traced. 

The communication, power supply and hoisting system in the shaft have been resumed, Hao said, adding the ventilation condition has been significantly improved. 

The coal mine, with a production capacity of two million tonnes every year, is fully licensed, the report said. 

Accidents have become common as energy hungry China, world's largest producer of coal, depends a lot on coal supplies to fire its economy. 

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. 

In August, 10 people were killed in two separate accidents at coal mines in China. In October, one person was killed in Shandong province.


Source: Business Standard

Improving Self-Escape from Underground Coal Mines

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Coal mine disasters in the United States are relatively rare events; many of the roughly 50,000 miners underground will never have to evacuate a mine in an emergency during their careers. However, for those that do, the consequences have the potential to be devastating. U.S. mine safety practices have received increased attention in recent years because of the highly publicized coal mine disasters in 2006 and 2010. Investigations have centered on understanding both how to prevent or mitigate emergencies and what capabilities are needed by miners to self-escape to a place of safety successfully. This report focuses on the latter - the preparations for self-escape.

 In the wake of 2006 disasters, the U.S. Congress passed the Mine Improvement and New Emergency Response Act of 2006 (MINER Act), which was designed to strengthen existing mine safety regulations and set forth new measures aimed at improving accident preparedness and emergency response in underground coal mines. Since that time, the efforts of the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) and the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) have contributed to safety improvements in the mining industry. However, the Upper Big Branch mine explosion in 2010 served as a reminder to remain ever vigilant on improving the prevention of mine disasters and preparations to help miners survive in the event of emergencies.

 This study was set in the context of human-systems integration (HSI), a systems approach that examines the interaction of people, tasks, and equipment and technology in the pursuit of a goal. It recognizes this interaction occurs within, and is influenced by, the broader environmental context. A key premise of human-systems integration is that much important information is lost when the various tasks within a system are considered individually or in isolation rather than in interaction with the whole system. Improving Self-Escape from Underground Coal Mines, the task of self-escape is part of the mine safety system.