Kolkata: Eastern Coalfields Ltd (ECL) on Tuesday announced the successful commissioning of its first highwall mining project at Nimcha Colliery in West Bengal. The project is expected to increase ECL's production by 0.5 million tonnes per year, the Coal India subsidiary said.
It aims to produce 51 million tonnes of coal in the 2023-24 fiscal, a sharp increase from 35 million tonnes in the previous financial year. To support this increased production, ECL has allocated a capital expenditure of Rs 1,250 crore for the current fiscal as against Rs 1,104 crore in 2022-23.
Highwall mining is a method to extract additional coal after the economic strip limit has been reached in surface mining. This technology provides an economical way to extract coal reserves locked up in the highwall, the company said.
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