Black Gold Rush: SCCL Finds 30 Million Tonnes of New Coal

The Singareni Collieries Company Limited (SCCL) has identified new coal reserves of approximately 30 million tonnes on the outskirts of Godavarikhani town in Telangana’s Ramagundam region, marking a significant boost to its resource base.

Preliminary exploration conducted by SCCL’s Exploration Department has located the deposits near the Sammakka-Sarakka jatara site along the Godavari riverbanks, at a depth of 250 metres. The coal occurs in two seams measuring 5.5 metres and 3 metres in thickness.

Officials are currently evaluating feasible mining methods, with options under consideration including developing a tunnel from the existing GDK-I incline mine or employing high-wall mining technology to access the newly discovered seams.

With several older mines approaching depletion, SCCL has ramped up exploration in and around Godavarikhani, including in areas near GDK-5 Opencast, OCP-2, and the Adriyala longwall project. Integration of the new reserves with existing operational infrastructure is also being explored to enable efficient extraction.

Coal was first discovered in the Ramagundam coal belt in 1959 at Jangaon, where 24 million tonnes were identified. Mining began in 1961, and to date, 21 million tonnes have been extracted. Current production in the region continues from RG-1, RG-2, RG-3, and Adriyala, with opencast mines contributing the majority of output.

News by Rahul Yelligetti.