Coal Geology & Mining

Germany called for tough action to combat climate change

IANS — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 01:37:32 +0000

Berlin, March 9 (Coal Geology) Germany called for tough action to combat climate change Monday following a new warning from Maldivian President Mohamed Nasheed about the threat posed to his nation by global warming.

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‘We will simply not survive as a country if there is no agreement (on cutting CO2 emissions),’ Nasheed said at a press conference in Berlin following talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

For her part, the German leader warned about the risk of deadlock emerging at the United Nations’ climate change talks set for November in Mexico City.

‘Germany along with the European Union will be again pressing for binding targets (on greenhouse gas emissions),’ Merkel said, adding that it remained open whether China and India could be convinced by then of the need to set goals.

India and China, which are two of the world’s leading emerging economies, have ruled out adopting binding climate change targets.

What also matters, said Merkel, was to limit global warming to 2 degrees Celsius by 2050.

The Copenhagen climate summit last December agreed to limit warming to 2 degrees but did not set out the moves for reaching the goal.

Considering the controversy surrounding the Copenhagen meeting, Nasheed did not appear optimistic that negotiations on limiting greenhouse gas emissions, saying that the chances of forging a

concrete agreement this year were not great.

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Assam investment meet for power plants, IT parks, bio diesel and more

IANS — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 22:03:04 +0000

Guwahati, March 8 (Coal Geology) Top corporate honchos of India are expected to attend Tuesday an investment summit here aimed at exploring opportunities for business in developing rural infrastructure, agriculture and setting up power plants, IT parks and bio-diesel facilities in Assam.

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Among those who are likely to attend the meet are Tata Sons chairman Ratan Tata, Eveready Industries chairman B.M. Khaitan, Bharti Group chairman Sunil Mittal, Mahindra and Mahindra chirman Ananda Mahindra, Videocon Group chief V.N. Dhoot, Piramal Healthcare chairman Swati Piramal, and M.S. Banga, president of Unilever (Home and Personal Care).

They would be taking part in the first board meeting of the newly floated Assam Investment Advisory Board.

‘Our target is to get investments to the tune of Rs.100,000 crore over the next five years and the expected outcome would significantly impact on the state’s social, economic, and enviromental indices like generating employment, higher growth rate, increase in income, besides green accounting and forest,’ Industry Minister Pradyut Bordoloi said.

The board meeting is expected to evaluate and approve the investment strategy, define investment policies and guidelines and create a framework for reviewing and monitoring progress on agreed investment objectives.

‘We are greatly enthused by the response from the entire top brass of India’s industry and hope the meeting would give a boost to the state’s economy as a whole,’ the minister said.

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Ground water Vs. Surface water

Ankan Basu — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 21:33:46 +0000

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What would you drink? The water from a surface water source or from a ground water source. Clean water is expensive. As you can find tons of bottled water in Walmart and other stores. There are many countries in the world where everybody does not get to drink clean water everyday.

So, both surface and groundwater sources of water are important. Let us look at some basic difference between the two sources of water.

In many cases the ground water is preferable while some other times surface water is better. Ground water from a deep source is too saline to drink. On the other hand surface water with high turbidity is non-potable. Surface water also carries more water borne disease than the groundwater including the “river blindness disease”.

	Ground Water	Surface Water
Availability	Groundwater storage is often orders of magnitude greater than surface water. Some region underlain by impermeable rock does not yield significant volume of ground water.	Surface water easily available. In arid regions, streams could be ephemeral.
Temperature	Groundwater has nearly constant temperature. Suitable for some specific industrial applications.	Temperature changes with the temperature of the surrounding.
Chemical Composition	Less Variable than surface water but often contain higher salt content. Salt content increases with depth.	Surface water usually contain less amount of salt but many times the high turbidity makes it nonpotable.
Deseases	Groundwater is generally free from water-borne pathogenic organisms such as malaria, salmonella, “river blindness” disease etc.

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Area of watershed calculation

Ankan Basu — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 20:45:39 +0000

Given the average discharge of 30 cfs and an average rate of runoff 12 inch/year find the area of watershed necessary to sustain the discharge.

1. Figure out the MASTER EQUATION
2. Determine missing parameter to set up derivative equation
3. Determine units you want to use.

Rate x Area = FLUX (units: L/T x L2=L3/T)
So, Area= FLUX/Rate

So,

convert Discharge from cfs to Cubic Feet /Year (FLUX).
convert runoff from inch/year to Feet/Year
Get area as Discharge/Runoff in square feet.
If you need area in other units, use conversion factors.

Use the attached spreadsheet to quickly get the numbers for drainage area.

For example, for 12 inch/year runoff and average discharge of 30 cfs, we need 9.47E+08 square feet drainage area (or 1.79E+05 square mile drainage area).

Calculate drainage area_CoalGeology.Com

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Spot coal price by coal commodity region in USA: March 8

Ankan Basu — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 18:14:51 +0000

March 8 (Coal geology): Energy Information and Administration (EIA) of US has released the spot coal prices by coal commodity regions (i.e., Central Appalachia (CAP), Northern Appalachia (NAP), Illinois Basin (ILB), Power River Basin (PRB), and Uinta Basin (UIB). The report includes data on average weekly coal spot market prices, average weekly coal commodity spot prices, monthly coal production, Eastern coal production trends, and average cost of metallurgical coal at coke plants and export docks.

For detail report please visit the news release by EIA

Average Weekly Coal Commodity Spot Prices (Dollars per Short Ton)
Week Ended	Central Appalachia 12,500 Btu, 1.2 SO2	Northern Appalachia 13,000 Btu, <3.0 SO2	Illinois Basin 11,800 Btu, 5.0 SO2	Powder River Basin 8,800 Btu, 0.8 SO2	Uinta Basin 11,700 Btu, 0.8 SO2
01/29/10	$57.95	$55.00	$41.50	$10.85	$40.00
02/05/10	$57.95	$55.00	$41.50	$10.65	$40.00
02/12/10	$58.95	$55.00	$41.50	$10.95	$40.00
02/19/10	$58.95	$59.50	$41.50	$11.00	$40.00
02/26/10	$58.95	$64.00	$41.50	$11.75	$40.00
03/05/10	$58.95	$64.00	$41.50	$12.70	$40.00

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National Mineral Development Corporation Limited to set up steel plant in Karnataka

IANS — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 14:04:33 +0000

Kolkata, March 8 (Coal Geology) Mining major National Mineral Development Corporation Limited (NMDC) is planning to set up a two million tonne per annum steel plant in Karnataka, a top company official said here Monday.

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‘The Karnataka state government has promised to allocate 2,500 acres of land for construction of a steel plant. This would be NMDC’s second steel facility after the proposed three million tonne per annum steel plant in Chhattisgarh,’ N. Srinivasan, joint general manager (finance) of the company, said.

He said: ‘A consultant is to be appointed for the Karnataka steel plant for necessary techno economic feasibility. Other reports will be prepared after which construction will start.

‘Any shortfall in the required investment may be raised by a combination of debt or equity based on the circumstances prevailing at that time.’

Talking about the Chhattisgarh steel plant, the official added that the company is already in possession of 995 acres and permission from the state government has been obtained for drawing water and power required for the construction of the steel plant.

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800 tonnes of manganese and iron ore seized in Keonjhar district, Orissa

IANS — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 14:00:09 +0000

Bhubaneswar, March 8 (Coal Geology) More than 800 tonnes of manganese and iron ore have been seized from Orissa’s mineral-rich Keonjhar district during a week-long crackdown on illegal mining, police said Monday.

The seizures took place in Bamebari area, 235 km from here. According to police officer Rajesh Pandit, the manganese was to be moved outside the state.

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The Green Pen: Environmental Journalism in India and South Asia

IANS — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 18:15:49 +0000

Do journalists writing about the environment have special problems? Do they have special opportunities? Should they see themselves as a tribe apart? Where should they draw the line between journalism and activism?

Book: ‘The Green Pen: Environmental Journalism in India and South Asia’;

Editors: Keya Acharya and Frederick Noronha;

Publisher: Sage;

Price: Rs.395

More than three decades after the Indian media started paying special attention to environmental issues, it was perhaps time for some soul searching in this genre of journalism – a need that this collection of essays fulfils to a large extent.

The essays in ‘The Green Pen’ have been written by journalists – which is both a strength and a weakness. It is a strength because the journalists have been able to express their day-to-day as well as long-term problems and prospects. It is a weakness because there is no outsider doing an objective analysis of this genre as it has been exercised over the last three decades and more.

The book is valuable for those studying the history of environmental journalism in India. Right from the foreword by Darryl D’Monte, it traces the growth of this genre from the days of protest over possible destruction of Kerala’s Silent Valley rainforest.

Other journalists who have been at it for decades trace the periodic shifts in the popularity of environment as a topic in the media. Richard Mahapatra and S. Gopikrishna Warrier talk about how this has been affected by India’s economic liberalisation. Keya Acharya shows how this genre is more than writing about the birds and the bees, a point stressed through the reprint of three pieces by Anil Agarwal, a pioneer in the field.

One of the best essays in the book is by Kunda Dixit, owner-editor of a number of publications and radio stations in Nepal, who explains exactly why environmental journalists should not see themselves as a separate category but should react to news developments in a professional manner.

The editors have done well to go beyond India and include essays on the state of journalism in the Maldives and Pakistan.

They have also done well by devoting a section to the interface between science, health and environment in the media — something not done often. Pallava Bagla has written on the barriers to good science journalism and Patralekha Chatterjee on how the media handles emerging issues like the interaction between the environment and health, especially exotic diseases.

With water sharing being one of the thorniest issues in South Asia, perhaps the section on this should have been fleshed out more, though Shree Padre has written about how water journalism warrants better attention.

Whether it is long-term effects of droughts and floods or about new farming practices forced by changes in the environment, many of the authors, especially Sunita Narain, have pointed out how the media has become very good at reporting and analysing sudden crises but largely fails to take notice of the unfolding of slow disasters.

It is a warning that both the media and the planners ignore at their own peril.

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Jharkhand assures water supply for Damodar Valley Corporation power plants

IANS — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 18:14:21 +0000

Ranchi, March 7 (Coal Geology) The Jharkhand government has assured Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) to provide water for the second stage of its 2×660 MW super-critical power plants, to prevent its shift from the state’s Koderma to Raghunathpur in West Bengal.

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‘We have written a letter to DVC assuring to provide enough water for the second phase of its power plants. The state government will provide 40 cusecs water from Tilaiya Dam of Koderma district to fulfill the water requirements,’ Water Resources Minister Chandra Prakash Chaudhary told reporters Sunday.

Work on the second phase will start after the first phase is completed in next two to three years.

DVC chairman S. Biswas, during a meeting with Jharkhand Deputy Chief Minister Raghubar Das last month, had reportedly raised the issue of water supply for the second stage of the power plants.

The issue of shifting the second stage of the power plant will be decided in DVC’s board of directors meeting, likely to take place later this month.

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Maghalaya seeks scientific facts on adverse effects of Uranium mining

Ankan Basu — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 15:31:12 +0000

A government-constituted committee in Meghalaya decided to seek scientific opinion on the overall effects of uranium mining. The decision was taken at the first sitting of the Joint Committee on Uranium Mining in Meghalaya (JCUMM) headed by Deputy Chief Minister Bindo M. Lanong, who is in charge of state mining and geology.

However, two anti-uranium mining groups — Khasi Students’ Union (KSU) and Coordination Committee of Social Organisations (CCSO) — boycotted the meeting to protest the inclusion of the Association of Meghalaya for Development Advancement (AMDA), a forum of pro-uranium group, in the JCUMM.

Lanong told reporters that the committee decided to write to an independent institute associated with nuclear physics for “definite and objective presentation from independent sources on the overall effects of uranium mining and suggest precautionary measures.”

He said the committee also wanted to involve more experts who can advise and give opinion on the subject, and added that the next meeting of the JCUMM would be held by April end or early May.

The committee would also visit Mawthabah, the uranium-rich area in West Khasi Hills district of Meghalaya, after the budget session of the state assembly.

“The members of the committee would meet people of the area and hear their views on the proposed uranium mining in the area,” he added.

When asked about the KSU and CCSO boycott, the deputy chief minister said the matter would be taken up after talks with the groups. “The committee will look into the matter. It would try to involve everyone concerned with regards to uranium mining in the state.”

Chief Minister D.D. Lapang set up the JCUMM November last year after protests against the Rs.209-crore first phase Uranium Corporation of India Limited (UCIL) development project in the mineral-rich area of West Khasi Hills district.

AMDA, a conglomerate of various non-governmental organisations from the district, supports the state government’s initiative.

A government official said the UCIL would invest Rs.209 crore to undertake pre-developmental project activities to build schools, hospitals, roads and other infrastructure.

The union ministry of environment and forests has given clearance to the UCIL to start mining in the state, triggering strong protests from local parties and non-government organisations.

The UCIL plans to produce 375,000 tonnes of uranium ore a year and process 1,500 tonnes of the mineral a day.

It has also proposed to set up a Rs.1,046-crore open-cast uranium mining and processing plant in Meghalaya, which has an estimated 9.22 million tonnes of uranium ore deposits.

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