ELEMENTS OF MINING

TECHNOLOGY
VOL-1, CHAPTER-2
CLASS NOTES
PREPARED BY:GAURAV KUMAR
ASSISTANT MANAGER (MINING),CCL
BTECH-MINING ENGG,BIT SINDRI
MTECH-MINING ENGG,IIT(ISM)DHANBAD,GOLD MEDALIST
• 1. As per the size gradation of coal the size of rubble coal is?
• (a) 0 to 25 mm (b) 25 to 50 mm © 50 to 200 mm (d) all of the above
• 2. which factor is considered in the calculation of UHV of non coking coal?
• (a) carbon and moisture (b) carbon and VM ©ash & VM
• (d) moisture & ash
• 3. what is the correct order of coalification?
• (a) vegetable matter, lignite,peat, anthracite
• (b) vegetable matter, peat,lignite,anthracite, bituminous
• © vegetable matter, lignite,peat, bituminous, anthracite
• (d) vegetable matter, peat, lignite, bituminous, anthracite
• 4. when was coal mining started in india?
• (a) 1857 (b) 1757 © 1774 (d) 1947
• 5. what is the caking index called?
• (a) agglutinating index (b) shatter index © plasticity index (d)
protodyoknov index
• 6. which state has the largest coal reserve in india?
• (a) Jharkhand (b) orissa © MP (d) west bengal
• Which is the most impure band in coal?
• (a) clarain (b) vitrain © durain (d) fusain
• Useful Heat Value or “UHV” means the heat value determined
on Equilibrated Basis by the following formula:
• UHV = 8900-138 x [A + M]
• where UHV = Useful Heat Value in kilo calories per kilogram
(KCal/kg),A = Ash content; and M = Moisture content
• In the case of Coal having moisture content less than two per cent
(2%) and volatile matter content less than nineteen percent
(19%), the UHV shall be the value arrived at as above reduced by
150 KCal/kg for each one percent (1%) reduction in volatile
content below nineteen per cent (19%).
BEES/Beehive
• There are two types of Bee Hive coke oven plants (or batteries).
• 1. Ordinary or conventional type (called Sabji Bhatta in Hindi
colloquially).
• 2. English type (sometimes called Tata Bhatta or CFRI Bhatta
colloquially).
• In external appearance both ovens look alike but the difference lies
mainly in the manner of circulation inside the oven of the smoke and
hot gases resulting from burning of coal.
• In the English type, there are flues i.e. passages for hot gases below
the refractory brick floor of the coal bed (but not on the sides) and the
coal is better heated within a short period compared to the ordinary
oven, in which the hot gases and smoke do not so circulate before
escaping into the atmosphere.
BEEHIVE OVEN
• The burning period of raw coal for conversion into hard coke,
called coking cycle, is nearly 36 hours in English ovens and it
can be reduced to even 24 hrs with better quality of coal. In
the ordinary ovens the normal burning period is 72 hours.
• The conversion factor for the two types is : In English
ovens 4.0 te raw coal yield 3 te hard coke; in the ordinary
type 4.5 te raw coal yield 3 te hard coke. The capacity of each
oven varies from 3.5 to 5 te of raw coal.
• Raw coal has to be charged in a crushed form (-10 mm size)
to the ovens
 • In a by-product coke oven plant the primary derivatives from
coal, by weight, are:
• 1. Coal tar, 3% yield on coal, approximately i.e. 30 kg/te of
raw coal.
• 2. Crude benzole, approx. 0.8% yield on coal.
• 3.Ammonium sulphate, approx. 1.1% yield on coal. Crude
pyridine production is 0.006% yield on coal.
• 4. Hard coke, 0.70 to 0.74 te per te of raw coal.
• The secondary derivatives from the above by-products
are naphthalene, phenols, creosote oil, benzene, pyridine,
etc.
• The tests for coking coals cover those properties of coal that
usually enters into consideration of its suitability for
carbonisation, etc.
• These are:
• 1. Caking Index.
• 2. Proximate analysis.
• 3. Chemical composition of coal ash.
• 4. Fusion range of coal ash.
• 5. Swelling test.
• 6. Plastically test.
• 7. Determination of undesirable salts
 Caking Index:
• The caking property of coal is represented by a numerical
called caking index (also called agglutinating index).
• The figure represents the maximum ratio of sand to coal in a
mixture which, after carbonisation, gives a coherent mass
capable of supporting a 500 g weight.
• The sand should be of a specified quality. The maximum ratio
of sand and coal is determined in the laboratory by a process
of elimination of mixtures of different ratios.
• For this test the weight of coal and sand mixture, as
prescribed by the Indian Standard Specifications is 25 g, but
the procedure adopted by Tata Iron and Steel Co. uses only 5
g of mixture.
• It is essential that the loose powder produced by the weight
should not exceed 5% of the weight of the sand- coal mixture.
The caking index gives only a relative idea of the capacity of
coal to yield coke
• For production of hard coke suitable for metallurgical
purposes, the coal should possess caking index of 22 and
above as determined by British Standard procedure.
• Coal, which by itself gives, on carbonisation, coke suitable
for metallurgical purposes, is called prime coking coal and
has a caking index of 22 and above.
• A medium coking coal is that which gives coke slightly
inferior to metallurgical coke.
• Such coal has caking index between 17 and 22.
• Semi coking coal (also called blendable coal) falls much
short of the requirements of prime coking coal and has a
caking index of 10 to 17; for example, coal in Mugma
coalfield. Semi coking coal produces reasonably good soft
coke.
• Though caking index is a major criterion to decide the coking
quality of coal, there are other qualities, as given below,
which a coking coal should possess.
• i. It should not swell on carbonisation; otherwise walls of
coke oven will be damaged.
• ii. It should have low phosphorous (less than 0.15%) and low
sulphur (less that 0.6% content).
• iii. It should have carbon content high enough (above 58%) to
give coke with minimum 75% carbon.
• iv. It should have low ash content nearly 17 to 18% or below.
The maximum ash that can be tolerated in the coke is 22.5%.
• v. V.M. content should not exceed 26%
 Plasticity Test and the Plastometer
When heated in the absence of air coking coals first become plastic
and then solidify again on further heating. On an average the coals
soften between 320°C and 350°C, attain maximum fluidity at
temperatures between 350°C and 400°C, and solidify again
between 400°C and 425°C the temperature of softening and
solidifying and the degree of plasticity vary from coal to coal.
• Non coking coals do not show any plastic behaviour. Property of
coking coal to become plastic on heating in absence of air is
known as its Plasticity and it is used as an index of its coking
capacity.
• Gr. I coke-ash percentage 20 % or less
• Gr. II coke -more than 20% but less than 24% ash
• The following coal seams produce prime coking coals:
• i. Jharia Coalfield – IX, X, XI and upper seams into XVIII seam.
• ii. Giridih Coalfield – Upper Karharbari, Lower Karharbari and
Bhadua seam.
• iii. Raniganj Coalfield – Chanch, Begunia, Laikdih, Shyampur-5,
Ramnagar, Khudia.
• Medium coking coal is available from the following coal seams after
washing-
• i. Jharia Coalfield – V to VIII, Mohuda Top and Mohuda Bottom.
• ii. Raniganj Coalfield – Dishergarh and Sanctoria seams in some areas
only.
• iii. Bokaro and Ramgarh Coalfield – Kargali, Kathara, Sawang,
Jarangdih, Bermo, Karo, Uchitdih, Kedla VII and VIII of Ramgarh
block one.
• iv. Kanhan Valley coalfield – Damua – Rakhikol. It is more on the
verge of semi coking coal.
• Assam coals have very low moisture and low ash (3-7%).
They produce excellent hard coke but as they are high in
sulphur, their use is not permitted in blast furnaces.
• Sulphur is present in Assam coals in organic form (3-7%)
and therefore difficult to separate; (V.M. 35- 40%).
• Reserves of prime coking coal, so essential for the manufacture of
iron and steel, are limited in the country, but that of non-coking
coal are plentiful. If the limited reserves of prime coking coal in
the country get exhausted, the medium coking coal by itself will
not be able to produce metallurgical coke and prime coking coal
will have to be imported. Keeping this in mind the Steel Plants
are manufacturing hard coke in their coke ovens from a blend of
nearly following composition.
• Prime coking coal – 60%
• Medium coking coal – 32%
• Blendable coal – 8%
• The blendable coal is generally selected on its gas-evolution
quality as sufficient gas has to be produced in coke ovens for
various heating operations in steel plants.
• For this reason Bhilai Steel Plant uses blendable coal of
Dishergarh, Poniaty and other coal seams of distant Raniganj
Coal Field in preference to relatively nearer Churcha seam
(Chirimiri Coal Field) which is of low ash content, nearly
15% as the latter has comparatively low V.M. content.
 • Coal Washing:
• The ash percentage in coal can be reduced by a process known as
coal washing in coal washeries which are established mostly in
Jharia, Raniganj, Bokaro and Karanpura coalfields for treating
prime and medium coking coals. Impurities in coal are plenty and
they are collectively known as ash.
• When coal is extracted in underground or opencast mines,
external impurities get mixed up with it e.g. rock, clay shale and
in the case of mines having sad-stowing, sand also gets mixed
with coal during mine operations. The impurities have higher
specific gravities than good burnable coal.
• The operation of washing coal therefore aims at floating the
coal and sinking the impurities in water. As a matter of fact,
coal won’t float on water. Coal has specific gravity of 1.28 to
1.3 against 1.0 for water.
• The fact that coal with a specific gravity of 1.28 to 1.3 sinks
in water at one speed and its impurities with higher specific
gravities sink faster, provides the basic principle for coal
washing.
• This is the principle adopted in Chance coal washer, the first
coal washer in India.
• In another method of washing, the process of Jigging is
employed to separate good quality coal from its impurities.
• Jigging is a simple process of particles-stratification in which
the particle rearrangement results from an alternate expansion
and compaction of a bed of particles by a pulsating fluid flow.
JIGGING OPERATION
• Jigs are continuous pulsating gravity concentration
devices. Jigging for concentrating minerals is based exclusively
on the differences in density of the particles. The elementary jig
(Fig. 13.29) is an open tank filled with water. A thick bed of
coarse heavy particles (ragging) is placed on a perforated
horizontal jig screen. The feed material is poured from the top.
Water is pulsated up and down (the jigging action) by pneumatic
or mechanical plunger. The feed moves across the jig bed. The
heavier particles penetrate through the ragging and screen to
settle down quickly as concentrate.
• The concentrate is removed from the bottom of the device.
The jigging action causes the lighter particles to be carried
away by the crossflow supplemented by a large amount of
water continuously supplied to the concentrate chamber. Jig
efficiency improves with relatively coarse feed material
having wide variation in specific gravity. Jigs are widely used
as an efficient and economic coal-cleaning device.
• A resource is that amount of a geologic commodity that exists
in both discovered and undiscovered deposits—by definition,
then, a “best guess.”
• Reserves are that subgroup of a resource that have been
discovered, have a known size, and can be extracted at a profit
• A Mineral Resource is a concentration or occurrence of solid
material of economic interest in or on the Earth’s crust in
such form, grade or quality and quantity that there are
reasonable prospects for eventual economic extraction.
• Mineral Resources are subdivided, in order of increasing
geological confidence, into Inferred, Indicated and Measured
Mineral Resources,
• A Mineral Reserve is the economically mineable part of a Measured
and/or Indicated Mineral Resource.
• Mineral Reserves are sub-divided in order of increasing confidence
into Probable Mineral Reserves and Proved Mineral Reserves.
• As a result of exploration carried out up to the maximum
depth of 1200m by the GSI, CMPDI, SCCL and MECL etc, a
cumulative total of 319.02 Billion tonnes of Geological
Resources of Coal have so far been estimated in the country
as on 1.4.2018.
• The details of state-wise geological resources of Coal are
given as under:
 Based on the results of Regional Exploration, where the
boreholes are normally placed 1-2 Km apart, the resources are
classified into ‘Indicated’ or ‘Inferred’ category. Subsequent
Detailed Exploration in selected blocks, where boreholes are
less than 400 meter apart, upgrades the resources into more
reliable ‘Proved/Measured’ category.
• Mineable reserve is an estimate of the economically
extractable or mineable part of a mineral resource. The
mineral deposits are studied and assessed to prove that they
can be mined at a huge profit, by taking into account all
factors that influence mining operations.
• THANKYOU