Indian coal delegation to visit US for mines and technology

Friday, 26 Feb 2010

PTI reported that a high level delegation led by Mr Sriprakash Jaiswal coal minister will visit the US in June 2010 for scouting for mining properties and seek expertise for an ambitious project to convert coal into gas among others. The delegation would comprise senior officials from the coal ministry and PSU Coal India Limited.

Mr Jaiswal said that "I will lead a delegation to the US in June with an aim to buy coal mines, procure latest mining equipment and forge alliance in underground coal gasification technology. Coal India is already looking to buy or jointly develop mines abroad to bridge the domestic demand supply gap. Its domestic expansion projects are facing delays."

Mr Jaiswal said that "There is an urgent need for adoption of clean coal technologies including coal washing, coal bed methane, coal mine methane, underground coal gasification and coal liquefaction as these are also important in improving the coal usage in an environment friendly manner."

Mr Jaiswal added that "The coal demand reached a level of 550 million tonnes in 2008-09 is envisaged to be over 2 billion tonnes by 2031-32. There is need to increase the domestic coal supply."

The coal ministry is also scouting for sophisticated mining equipment from abroad to dig out more from domestic coal deposits. It has also sought reduction in customs duty on such machineries to about 3% from around 10% at present in the upcoming Union Budget.

CIL is unlikely to meet production target of 435 million tonnes for this fiscal and has already revised downward its estimated output for 2011-12 to 486 million tonnes from 520 million tonnes mainly on account of regulatory hurdles. The US, which has one of the world's largest coal reserves, has rich experience in converting coal into gas.

(Sourced from www.ptinews.com)

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