Country's first coal production started from an Underground (UG) mine near Damodar river of

Raniganj Coalfield by Sumner & Heatly of East India Company in 1774. Yet, with such a legacy,
share of UG mining in India has gone down over time
Coal India's production from UG mines declined sharply from 76 percent of total production at the
time of nationalisation of the coal sector to around 5 percent now.
"Continuing Open Cast mining means the concentrated focus on UG mining gradually dimmed
resulting in lower volumes of production from UG mines and the skill involved therein. Economic
viability issues also badly affected the UG mining proposals," says the Vision UG mining report of the
Coal Ministry.
But with current focus on lowering of emission and need for better quality of coal, UG mining is again
coming back to the centre stage.
However, India needs to do a lot in catching up with the rest of the large mining economies, feel
experts.

Why go for UG mining?

UG mines are minimally invasive on land avoiding its degradation while UG Coal is superior in quality
and reduces import burden for higher grades of coal, said Ashim Kumar Mukherjee Senior Technical
Advisor, Universal MEP Projects & Engineering Services Ltd, a subsidiary of Voltas Ltd, said.
OC mines are also bad for the agriculture while UG mines protects the ecology and topsoil,
"It takes 500 to 1,000 years for formation of 1 inch of top soil. As per the Ministry of Agriculture, the
extent of soil erosion or soil loss of more than 10 tons per hectares per year in cultivable land of the
country has touched 92.4 million hectares," he informed.
According to Mukherjee, these are some of the factors for going for UG mining:
 Depletion of agricultural land, Soil erosion and environmental factors outweighs advantage of
higher OMS in case of OC Mines.
 Availability of UG mining equipment at par with HEMM's technology and prospect of achieving
self-reliance in UG machineries and availability of monitoring equipment
 Compulsion of achieving self-sufficiency in critical and strategie elements
 Government's readiness to go on MDO mode for UG Mines on revenue-sharing basis
 More emphasis on renewable
Promoting UG mining
The Coal Ministry is conscious of the fact that promotion of underground coal mining can help in
conservation of environment.
Accordingly, policy has been approved to promote underground coal mining.
"Use of technology through deployment of continuous miners, high-wall and long-wall are being
promoted," Mukherjee said.
Environment Ministry has also permitted exemption from compensatory afforestation requirement
for underground mines.
"In ope-rationalization of mines through private sector, incentive provisions are being considered
to attract interest into underground mining," Mukherjee said.
To get more coal from underground, promotional (regional) exploration should be increased,
believes Mukherjee.
Detailed exploration has to be increased so that more resources can be brought in proven category
from indicated and inferred category.
Geophysical Surveys are also need to be carried out, he said.
Such surveys may be any one or more of the followings:
(a) Scismic Survey (2D/31)
(b) Magnetic Survey
(c) Resistivity Survey
(d) Gravity Survey

Alongside, hydrogeological studies need to be carried out, he said.

Need to raise the bar

"We need to raise the bar in India to the next level,* Helen Gibson, GM, Underground Soft Rock, at
Komatsu-Joy Global, said at the conference citing low level of UG mining in India compared with
major mining: dependent countries like South Africa, US and Australia.
This is the right time for India to scale up its UG mining, she feels.
Gibson sees Indian UG mining industry achieving the phase of rapid growth in 2030 when nations like
China, US, Australia, South Africa would be touching either maturity or declining phases.
Level of automation in Indian UG mining is also low.
According to Cibson, in India, operators control all machine functions in continuous miners and there
is absence of assist features.
Kotamsu has started launching state-of the art digitally connected equipment across its UG mining
equipment range and have already implemented its first connected continuous miner with real-time
monitoring in India.
As per the 38th Report of Standing Committee on Coal, Mines & Steel (2022-23), 41 Continuous
Miners are planned to be added in 20 mines by March 2026. Future UG Mining shall go deeper than at
present, said Mukherjee.
"Equipment for use underground should be customized to the mine environment and mine
requirement," Mukherjce said.
Mukherjee also stressed on going for eco-friendly viable underground mining techniques
for optimal utilisation of different mineral deposits locked in different parts of India which need to be
explored in collaboration with Mining Research Institutes and experienced players already in the field.
Current productivity of UC mines in the country is significantly low compared to international
standards.
The prevalent technology in Indian UG mines is intermediate type using a cyclic process of blasting
and loading by LHD/ SDL, on conveyors/tubs.
Viability of UG mines remains a major impediment due to comparatively inferior grade of Indian coal,
experts said.
Need for skill development
Training and skilling initiatives are pivotal in shaping the future of UG mining, Mukherjee said.
Following steps are to be needed:
 Landscape of training and skilling programs should match with evolving technology and process
 Programs aiming towards familiarization
of working environment are to be chalked
 Equipment manufacturers to train operation and maintenance staff with the specific features
and functions of the equipment
 On-site training of operation and maintenance staff to be carried out to learn and apply their
skills in real-world underground working environments
 Simulator-based training is to be given to provide a safe and controlled environment for trainees
to practice operating underground mining machines.

Coal India's strategy

Driven by environmental concerns, CIL is focusing to unlock its trapped UG reserves.
UG Vision Plan was prepared for capacity addition through, mass production technologies and High
Wall mining from 2022-23 to 2027-28 with expected production of 100 mt in FY28.
CIL is adopting modern advanced mass-production technologies such as Highwall mining, Punch
Longwall mining, Paste Fill technology etc. for increase in production of underground mines, Dr 3
Veera Reddy, Director (Technical), said.
Apart from departmental mode, CIL is also adopting MDO, long term outsourcing. revenue share etc.
For these initiatives, Coal India is going for identification of high capacity mines of at least 2 mtpa
capacity.