Coal India Limited has said that it is planning to extract about 2-3 billion tonne reserves from existing and abandoned underground mines.

The company is aiming to expand supply of coal in the country by extracting coal in its around 200 existing and abandoned underground mines across different regions in the country. CIL produced about 40 mt from more than more than 270 underground assets this year. Officials said that most of the underground assets are currently loss making and are located in Ranigunj-Jharia coalfield.

CIL chairman S Narsing Rao said, “Not less than 2-3 billion tonne of coal are locked in underground pillars. Ideally, a part of it should be recovered with introduction of modern technology. I request you, individually or as an association, to come up with mine specific projects, to be sponsored by CIL, on coal recovery.” He was speaking at an event organised by the Indian School of Mines Alumni Association in Kolkata.

CIL has reportedly closed down about 100 such mines in the previous years. The reserves in these mines are locked due to use of archaic “board and pillar” method of extraction. The process only allows the recovery of 30 per cent of underground reserves.