17 MAY, 2012, DEBJOY SENGUPTA, ET BUREAU
KOLKATA: At a time when Coal India is struggling to meet the fuel demand of power units, the miner has received some good news from its research and development unit.
The Central Mine Planning & Design Institute Ltd (CMPDIL), which specialises in coal block exploration, research and development, said it has added 3.2 billion tonne in mineable reserves to the company's proven category in 2011-12, up 45% from the previous year.
The data has come as a relief to the state-owned monopoly, which missed its revised 2011-12 production target, achieving only 435.84 million tonne against the projected 447 million tonne.
At present, Coal India's proven coal reserves, or the areas ready to be mined, total up to about 64 billion tonne, with CMPDIL adding on an average 2.5 billion tonne every year.
The miner takes four to six months to prepare feasibility and detailed project reports on such reserves, which are then placed before the board for investment clearance.
"CMPDIL has been adding reserves to the proven category steadily over the last few years. Over the last five years, it added more than 10 billion tonne to Coal India's reserve kitty," AK Singh, the unit's chairman, told ET.
CMPDIL said it set a record in 2010-11 by carrying out 273,000 metre of drilling, which was 2% higher than the previous year's.
"We could report a 45% jump in addition to proven reserves during 2011-12, as we have increased our exploration capacity and the area we were working on included promising reserves," the official said.
Drilling by CMPDIL and its contractual agencies touched an all-time high of 498,000 metres in 2011-12, compared with 492,000 metres in the previous year.
Exploratory drilling was carried out in 88 blocks spread over 16 coalfields in seven states, the official said, adding that promotional drilling was taken up in 19 blocks over eight coalfields.
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