Coal news and updates

The Coal Controller’s Organisation, a Coal Ministry outfit, has been tasked with grading and notifying the mines of Coal India Ltd. from April 2017. This marks a significant change from the present practice of internal grading by Coal India.

 

This could also lead to a major change in the existing grades accorded to the mines. Until now, the grading was done by the coal-producing subsidiaries of CIL and was vetted by the CCO, a CIL official said.

 

The change has been triggered by a new thrust on quality following recurring complaints on coal quality and grade mismatch by coal consumers in both the power and the non-power sectors.

 

It was felt that while CIL had geared itself up to produce coal as per demand, quality still remained an issue. “Frequently, during the third-party sampling of coal post-delivery, it was found that grades [determined on gross calorific value] was several notches lower,” a coal consumer said.

 

“Quality has always been a major deterrent for India coal,” a spokesperson of the Coal Consumers Association of India said adding that “in between coal-seams, presence of layers of stone and extraneous material lead to variation in grades.”

Source: Thehindu.com