A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between Coal India Limited’s exploration arm Central Mine Planning & Design Institute Limited (CMPDIL) and Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur (IIT-KGP) for carrying out analysis of coal samples from different exploration camps for a period of two years. CMPDI will entrust IIT-KGP with 3000m of coal-cores annually to carry out different analytical tests to determine the quality of coal samples for incorporating in Geological Reports.
Efforts of CMPDIL have helped to increase the proven resources of coal in India from 21 billion tonnes in 1976 billion tonnes in 1976 to 156 billion tonnes in 2019. Six billion tonnes of coal were added to the proven category through the preparation of 12 geological reports till December 2019 and it is estimated that another 10 billion tonnes of coal will be added to this category covering an area of about 350 square kilometers during 2019-20.
The company is expected to add 16 billion tonnes of proven reserves to the national resource base this year by March 2020. The plan is to offer fully explored blocks on auctions to commercial miners, the centre has decided to nearly treble monetary allocation to the Coal India arm so that it can increase its exploration acreages multiples times.
