Chairman CIL, Pramod Agrawal visits highwall operation in USA

USA: Shri. Pramod Agrawal, Chairman, Coal India Limited, Dr. B. Veera Reddy, Director-Technical, Coal India Limited, and Shri. M.K.Singh, ED & TS to Chairman, Coal India Limited visited and examined the high wall mining equipment & its operation at Ben’s Creek Operations, a mine at Logan, West Virginia, USA. 

In the lush green valley of the Appalachian mountains, this high-grade metallurgical coal mine operates profitable mining operations, with sustainability and efficient extraction of a one-metre thick coal seam leading to optimal exploitation of coal reserves as its prime objective. 

The CIL delegation was impressed with about 70% extraction of coal reserves by high wall mining. They discussed the operations with Mr. Dave Johns, the Project Manager of Highwall operations at the mine. 

CIL is looking forward to unlock the reserves stranded in the opencast mines that were discontinued after reaching a limited stripping ratio. Highwall mining may prove to be a game changer for the gainful extraction of high grade coal in ECL, BCCL, and CCL.