KOLKATA (miningweekly.com) – India’s Singareni Collieries Company Limited (SCCL) has been allotted a second coal block in the eastern state of Odisha, boosting the miner’s plans to expand beyond its traditional operational hinterland in the south.
SCCL has been allotted New Patrapada coal block, the second in Odisha after the Naini coal block with barely 15 km separating the two assets.
SCCL has sought additional coal blocks to expand its mining operations across the country beyond its existing 48 mines predominantly in southern India to achieve its target of 100-million tons a year of coal production, up from 68-million tons a year at present.
SCCL is a 51:49 joint venture of the Telangana government in southern India and the central government.
The New Patrapada coal block allotted to the company through the preferential dispensation route permitted for government miners, is billed as one of the largest, with estimated coal reserves of 1.04-billion tons, and almost thrice the size of the Naini coal block already bagged by SCCL.
As per mining plans drawn up by the company, both the assets would be brought into production by 2021 in phases.
Meanwhile, in a significant development, SCCL would be able to resume operation of one of its opencast mine after the Supreme Court last week, set aside a ruling by National Green Tribunal (NGT) which had directed the miner to stop all operations at an opencast mine in Telangana.
The apex court allowed SCCL to resume operations of the mine as long as it adhered to the environmental clearances granted to the mine in 2016. NGT had ruled that blasting operations at the mine would affected local habitants. However, it was argued by SCCL that all mining operations, including blasting, would be conducted as per guidelines laid down in the environmental clearance. The resumption of operations of the opencast mine would enable the country’s second largest coal producer to achieve production target for 2019/20.