India’s proven coal reserves at 118 bn tons: GSI

Kolkata: India’s total proven coal reserves stood at 118 billion tonne as on April 1, 2012, according to Geological Survey of India’s estimate. This shows an increase of around four billion tonne over GSI’s previous estimate in 2011, an India Coal Market Watch (ICMW) report said on Wednesday.

At the present level of production, the proven stock of coal, upto a depth of 1,200 metres, would sustain for around 200 years, the GSI’s estimate predicted. The increased estimate shores up the geologists’ claim of abundant reserves of coal in India, having largest coal reserves, after the US, Russia and China.

Despite the higher domestic reserves, India continued to import the dry fuel. India’s total coal reserves, however, are more than double the proven reserves and stand at 293 billion tonne as on April 1, 2012, up from 285.86 billion tonne as on April 1, 2011, the GSI estimate shows.

Only around 7.14 billion tonne of total coal reserve was added between April 1, 2011 and March 31, 2012 as against a total increment of 9.05 billion tonne between April 1, 2010 and March 31, 2011. The total reserve of 392 billion tonne includes indicated reserves of 142 billion tons and inferred reserves of 33 billion tons, the ICMW report added.

These latest estimates take into account the coal deposits found up to the depth of 1,200 metres in Gondwana coalfields and Tertiary coalfields. Almost the entire reserve of 292 billion tonne is found in Gondwana coalfields while a miniscule part of 1 billion tons is traced in Tertiary region.

A depth-wise break-up shows that reserves up to the level of 0-300 metres are at 173 billion tons, 0-600 metres (only for Jharia coalfield for which break-up is not available) at 14.2 billion tons, 300-600 metres at 84 billion tonne, and 600-1,200 metres at 21.5 billion tonne.

–With inputs from Agency