Pre-Synopsis

on

Constraints in Mine Planning and design in Raniganj Coalfield

Submitted by
Himanshu Pandey

Guide:

Dr. Alok Sinha

Assistant Professor
Department of Environmental Science and Engineering

Submitted to

Department of Environmental Science and Engineering,

Indian School of Mines
Dhanbad 826004
 Constraints in Mine Planning and design in Raniganj Coalfield

INTRODUCTION

Raniganj coalfield is one of the the important coalfield in India . This coalfield is the
easternmost of the Damodar Valley Coalfields. The coalfields lie mostly in the West
Bengal and partly (western portion) in Bihar . Raniganj Coalfield is primarily located in
the Asansol and Durgapur subdivisions of Bardhaman district in the Indian state of West Bengal. .
The coalfield is surrounded by the Archean rocks on all sides except in the east. Coal
bearing Gondwana strata lie beneath the alluvium cover.
Coals of the Barkar Measures are low in moisture (1-3%), low in volatile matter (20-
30%)whereas coals of Raniganj Measures are high in moisture (3-10%) and high in
volatile matter (30-36%).Other coalfields found in West Bengal are Barjora coalfield,
Birbhum coalfield and Darjeeling coalfield.

Large scale mining cost benefits are obtained by planning capital intensive operations
using large mining equipment units. Planning and scheduling the efficient utilisation of
this equipment and optimum recovery of mineral resources has a significant effect upon
total mining costs. Increasing the size of active mining areas reduces potential
scheduling difficulties but this option has limits depending upon insitu resource
geometry. Different mines place different emphasis on the spatial scheduling factors
that lead to decisions to have more than one mining area. Factors such as blending,
equipment utilisation and resource recovery are all equally important and yet these
have different priorities in determining the need for spatially intensive mining areas.
Environmental restrictions may also constrain the area available for production at any
time.

Increasing the number of active mining areas will raise the risk of poor
equipment utilisation due to inefficient scheduling. This risk could be reduced by the
application of simulation and optimisation techniques to assist mine planning and
scheduling decisions. Successful application of these techniques will reduce mining costs
in operations where, because of the geometry of the deposit, a large amount of
equipment is being used in a small mining area. The method used in determining these
mining costs is also important and is discussed in the thesis. The effect of increased
production rates on the optimum schedule is investigated by utilising information from
the linear programming sensitivity analysis results. Other benefits include reduced
environmental impact due to the potential to minimise the size of the disturbed area.
.
OBJECTIVES OF THE PROPOSED RESEARCH
The specific objectives of the proposed research work are following:
to evaluate different mine planning and design parameters
to identify key problem areas in planning,costing and scheduling
to provide a solution to solve the bottlenecks in mine planning

METHODOLOGY OF PROPOSED RESEARCH

 The investigations involved the use of data from both multiseam and thick
seam mines in Raniganj coalfield. Application of the mine planning software
computer packages autocad, galena surfer minx SURPAC, have been successfully used
in assisting the studies. Methods of incorporating optimisation algorithms such as linear
programming into the program are also discussed