Specialists and experts gathered on Saturday to think on reducing import of coking coal to save the Government’s foreign exchequer during a discussion programme organized at Central Mine Planning and Design Institute (CMPDI) on Saturday in which the present experts were also opined that reducing ash content during coal yield is need of the hour.

Addressing the gathering of mine specialists as Chief Guest Director (Technical) Binay Dayal in his address brought forward the issue of coking coal reserves quality of the Country which is very poor in terms of ash percentage and has difficulty in beneficiation. He stated that majority of coking coal produced in India is of Washery Grade-V and beyond. “Due to higher ash content only small share of coking coal produced in India has been utilized in metallurgical sector; and remaining major share has been diverted to non-metallurgical sector. The situation is alarmingly critical as we are not only losing valuable coking coal reserves to non-metallurgical sectors, but also it is draining huge Indian foreign currency reserves,” he added.

Speaking on the occasion as Distinguish Guest, Joint Secretary Ministry of Coal M Nagaraju, stated that Government of India has brought out the National Steel Policy with an objective to create a self-sufficient steel industry. “It is envisaged that around 300 mtpa of steel will be produced by 2030-31 for which requirement of coking coal will be around 180 mtpa. It has also given guidelines to use at least 35 per cent of indigenous coking coal. We have considerable resource of medium coking coal around 27.9 Bt out of which around 8.5 per cent Bt were not being considered for beneficiation owing to their higher ash content 35 per cent. After addition of two new grades namely W-V and W-VI in re-classification of coking coal, these coals which were earlier being used for power sector will now be used for steel sector after suitable beneficiation,” he added.

Chairman cum Managing Director, Central Coalfield Limited (CCL), Gopal Singh, also graced the occasion through his presence and had an interactive session with the representative of SAIL, MECON, TATA Steel and other delegates wherein the focus was that both coal and steel sector should sit together to discuss on utilization of the domestic coking coal in the interest of the country.

On the beginning of the programme Director Technical (P and T) KK Mishra welcomed the Chief Guest, Dayal, Guest of Honour Nagaraju, other dignitaries and delegates. He pointed out the figure of the foreign exchange that is 1,90,000 crore was spent on the imported coal. He, therefore, said that utilizing domestic coking coal in metallurgical sector is the need of the hour.

This work shop on “Optimization of clean coal yield at lower ash percentage” has brought learned and experienced persons together to think un directionally in reducing import of coking coal to save government’s foreign exchequer. We look forward to more integrated association of washery operators and consumers with coal producers to work on optimization of available resources. Increased coordination among academia-research institutions and coal industry would facilitate realistic solutions for critical problem in bridging demand and supply gap of coking coal and thus saving of foreign exchange.