Mines and Minerals Reporter :: July, 2008 Issue

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An Overview On Breakdown Of Lhd And Sdl In An Indian Underground Coal Mine
By B. C. Bhattacharya

ABSTRACT
Coal production in underground mines is eco-friendly and ensures better degree of quality assurance as compared to opencast mining. In fact, this is the only option left for extraction of deeper deposits. P erformance of underground sector is very poor compare to opencast sector. Machine running time in mechanized coal mining sector is very low due to series of breakdowns. A careful study on breakdowns and its trends analysis certainly reduce its recurrence. Reduction in breakdowns or reduction in down time will improve machine availability time and hence improvement in performance.
Keywords: Breakdown, Equipment, Downtime, Utilization, Gate-end box, LHD & SDL.

Coal Gasification Technology: Initiatives For Eco-Friendly Energy
By Ajay K. Singh1, Basanta K. Prusty1, Vinod A. Mendhe1 and Amalendu Sinha

ABSTRACT
In the present era of clean and green fuel, there exist new competitiveness of the power industry and a desire to switch to gas as a fuel due to efficiencies in gas turbine combustion. There has been a dramatic growth in the import of petroleum in India for all round progress and development. Adopting economical options may bridge the resulting onus on public exchequer. The need to develop clean coal based energy resource has become more pressing than ever. It is particularly most relevant for India as 55% of the commercial energy comes from coal and lignite. This trend is likely to continue for the years to come. Coal gasification is, therefore, considered comparatively more attractive.

Corporate Social Responsibility Of A Mining Company
By B. C. Bhattacharya

ABSTRACT
Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh in a speech on May 14, 2007 in the CII Annual General meeting asked India’s corporate sector to adopt a ten-point charter on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). Some of these ten points are sound good advice, both for companies and society in general. He indicated the corporate sector to have a healthy respect for workers and to invest in their welfare, invest for the community & people and in their skills, in environment-friendly technologies, promote enterprise and innovation within their firms and outside. Further, he reminded, “Corporate social responsibility must not be defined by tax planning strategies alone. Rather, it should be defined within the framework of a corporate philosophy which factors the needs of the community and the regions in which the corporate entity functions,” (The Economic Times Oct 06, 2007). In fact, activities reflecting shouldering the corporate responsibility of a company should not be considered as a philanthropic activity or fulfilling the related statutory obligations, rather it has to be in built in the project report as an important part of the business programme with suitable budget provision.

The author based on his experience in coal mining industry has made an attempt to discuss the basic issues of the sub theme related to industry in general and coal mining industry in particular. In absence of any set rule in respect of CSR, the author discussed the existing practices as well as further prospects of the topic in Indian Mining industry within the short span of the paper. The policy and the activities adopted by coal major Coal India Limited in the coal industry has been cited as example at places.

Numerical Analysis Of Slope Stability Using Fem
By Dr Debashish Chakravarty1 and Mr Jaydeep Mukherjee

ABSTRACT
This paper discusses the upcoming new Finite Element Techniques viz. the Gravity Increase Method and Strength Reduction Method; which have been developed for Slope Stability Analysis using the ANSYS tool available with the department. The factor of safety has been calculated and analysed leading to an assessment of the stability of the slopes. It has been seen that such approach of the stability analysis is in tune with the natural slopes existing in the mining field.
KEYWORDS: Slope Stability. FEM. Drucker-Prager, Mohr-Coulomb and ANSYS.