Needed: Subsidence & Subterranean Water Supply Effect Control
A technology that helps control subsidence and subterranean water supply will be a necessity for the Hong (Red) River Delta coal basin mining project.
Huge potential
Surveys indicate that the Red River Delta coal basin is located in Hung Yen, Thai Binh and Nam Dinh provinces. Of the coal basin’s total reserve, 90 percent is found in Thai Binh, 8.5 percent in Hung Yen and 1.5 percent in Nam Dinh. The coal basin occupies 2,500 square kilometers and has a reserve of 210 billion tonnes, while its coal-beds are 150-2,500 meters below ground.
The Vietnam National Coal-Mineral Industries Group (VINACOMIN) said that the Red River Delta coal basin has a large reserve that is rather evenly spread over a large area near big selling points. Coal-beds are gently sloped, making them convenient for mechanized mining. Coal in the Red River Delta is bitumen coal that is consistent in material ingredients and chemical and technological properties. With its typical properties, the coal can be used for creating fuel for thermoelectric and cement plants.
The Red River Delta coal basin mining project will help reduce coal imports, which are needed for electricity generation, and increase gross domestic product of localities that are the project’s beneficiaries. The project is expected to provide 8-13 million tonnes of coal and 11 billion cubic meters of gas or 1.745 million barrels of diesel oil per year after mining begins.
In the long run, the project is expected to make project-based localities no longer entirely dependent on agriculture, help transform the economic structure towards industry and contribute to promoting the development of different industries and support services. If coal gasification is successful, the Red River Delta coal basin mining project will likely result in the appearance of a new industry – diesel oil production.
Subsidence and subterranean water supply effect control technology
Careful estimates need to be made before mining begins because the coal basin is located below plains where wet rice is cultivated and a large population exists. This is why underground mining and coal gasification will likely be a technology to be chosen for the Red River Delta coal basin mining project to control subsidence and affects on subterranean water supplies.
Nguyen Thanh Son, the director of the Song Hong Energy Company – the project’s implementer, said, “To control subsidence, we will choose a place of mining that is less than 200m under ground and mine coal-beds successively.” Sand will be pumped into sunken areas to minimize subsidence, he said.
Red River Delta coal basin mining plan makers said that open-cast mining technology will not be used, while coal mining’s negative impacts on the related socioeconomic environment, residential areas, above surface industrial projects and farming land must be minimized.
Coal mining development should encourage the development of a coal processing industry, coal-running thermoelectric plants, coal gasification and production of diesel oil from coal.
Mining technology to be used must be global-standard advanced technology to assure occupational safety, protect the environment and have minimal impact on agricultural production in general and wet rice cultivation practices in particular in the Red River Delta./.
Tags: Vietnam coal projects
Posted by VBN on Jan 18 2010. Filed under Mining & Metal. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry
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