The South Eastern Coalfields ltd (SECl) the largest coal producing subsidiary of Coal India ltd (CIl) intends to get coal extracted from Kusmunda mine by Surface Miners and get it transported through covered conveyor system after the expansion of the mine is completed in Korba district of Chhattisgarh, officials stated.
The Kusmunda Opencast Project will be in a total Mining lease (Ml) area of 3510.348 hectares after the expansion of the project .
Notably, SECl is also planning to extract coal from the Ketki Underground Mine in Surguja district of Chhattisgarh without any blasting done in the mining process.
The company would get a scientific study done for obtaining permission from Directorate General of Mine Safety (DGMS) for the introduction of Continuous Miner or Similar Equipment with Continuous Cutting Technology in the aforesaid mine and strata monitoring as required by DGMS, officials stated.
On the other hand, notably, SECl would also be utilising fixed water sprinkler for dust suppression system at coal stockyard and coal transportation roads at Baroud Open Cast Mine (OCM) of Baroud Sub-Area of Raigarh district.
The company has won prestigious "Indira Priyadarshini Vriksha Mitra Award" Instituted By Ministry Of Environment & Forest and "Jawahar lal Nehru Memorial Award For Excellence In Pollution Control" in New Delhi.
To enhance and maintain the safety awareness among workers Safety Fortnights and special safety drives are observed in mines of SECl. Awareness and Safety talks in each shift are being practiced on regular basis to develop a safety culture in accordance of “Code of Safe Practices”, officials stated.
The initial training is imparted to all new entrant and refresher training to all employees as per statute. Thrust on training and retraining of Supervisors, Support Personnel, HEMM operators and contractor’s workers was maintained as a strategy to reduce accidents due to roof/side falls in underground mines and accidents in opencast mines and at surface of mines, they stated.
Apart from statutory training being provided to employees of SECl under the Mines Vocational Training Rules, 1966 at the time of intake and refresher training at regular interval at VTCs at Areas, need based training is also imparted at Area level and at Management Development Institute of SECl HQ, Bilaspur.
Executives are also undergoing special training at IICM, Ranchi & other educational institutions / organizations, officials stated.
A total of 201 mines reported mineral production in Chhattisgarh during 2014-15, as per the annual report of the Union Ministry of Mines.
The aforesaid figure was excluding minor minerals, petroleum (crude), natural gas and atomic minerals.
The total number of mines in the country which reported mineral production during 2014-15 stood at 3318 as against 3372 during the previous year.
Out of the 3318 mines reporting mineral production, 498 are in Rajasthan, 444 in Andhra Pradesh, 362 in Gujarat, 326 in Madhya Pradesh, 272 in Tamil Nadu, 250 in Jharkhand, 201 in Chhattisgarh, 178 in Karnataka, 173 in Odisha, 150 in Maharashtra, 145 in Telangana and 120 in West Bengal.
The 12 aforsaid states accounted for 94 per cent of the total number of mines in the country during 2014-15, the report stated.
Chhattisgarh—a mineral rich State had 7.48 per cent share in total value of mineral production in the country during 2014-15, according to the 2014-15 annual report of the Union Ministry of Mines.
As per the report, Rajasthan had share of 11.49 per cent, Gujarat ( 8.85 per cent), Andhra Pradesh ( 8.25 per cent), Chhattisgarh ( 7.48 per cent) followed by Jharkhand ( 7.37 per cent), Odisha ( 6.38 per cent), Maharashtra ( 5.35 per cent), Madhya Pradesh ( 4.70 per cent), West Bengal ( 4.32 per cent), Assam (4.04 per cent), Karnataka (2.96 per cent) and Uttar Pradesh ( 2.72 per cent).
The remaining States and Union Territories having individual share of less than 2.5 per cent all together accounted for remaining of total value of mineral production during the year under review, the report stated.
State-wise analysis revealed that during 2014-15, the value of mineral production have shown a mixed trend as compared to the previous year.
The states which have indicated an increase in the value of mineral production are -- Tripura (14.3 per cent), Karnataka ( 1.6 per cent), Bihar (6.6 per cent), Himachal Pradesh ( 16.5 per cent), Mehgalaya ( 61.6 per cent), Uttar Pradesh ( 0.8 per cent) and Chhattisgarh ( 0.7 per cent).
During 2014-15, mineral production was reported from 33 states and union territories which is actual reporting from Mineral Conservation and Development Rules ( MCDR) and fuel minerals from 23 states and estimation of minor minerals for all the 32 States and union territories of which the bulk of value of mineral production of about 94.18 per cent was confined to 13 states ( including off shore areas) only, it stated.