The hard work of a miner, or how coal is mined. The largest coal deposits in Russia and the world Places and methods of mining coal

Despite the fact that today alternative energy sources are increasingly used, mining coal is a relevant area of ​​industry. One of the most important areas of application of this type of fuel is the operation of power plants. Coal deposits are located in various countries world, and 50 of them are active.

World coal deposits

Largest quantity Coal is mined in the United States in deposits in Kentucky and Pennsylvania, Illinois and Alabama, Colorado, Wyoming and Texas. Hard and brown coal, as well as anthracite, are mined here. Russia takes second place in the extraction of these minerals.

China is in third place in coal production. The largest Chinese deposits are located in the Shanxing coal basin, in the Great Chinese Plain, Datong, Yangtze, etc. A lot of coal is also mined in Australia - in the states of Queensland and New South Wales, near the city of Newcastle. India is a major coal producer, and the deposits are located in the northeast of the country.

In the deposits of Saarland and Saxony, Rhine-Westphalia and Brandenburg in Germany, hard and brown coal have been mined for more than 150 years. There are three coal basins in Ukraine: Dnieper, Donetsk, Lvov-Volyn. Anthracite, gas coal and coking coal are mined here. Quite large-scale coal deposits are located in Canada and Uzbekistan, Colombia and Turkey, North Korea and Thailand, Kazakhstan and Poland, the Czech Republic and South Africa.

Coal deposits in Russia

A third of the world's coal reserves are located in Russian Federation. The largest number of deposits is located in the eastern part of the country, in Siberia. The largest Russian coal deposits are as follows:

• Kuznetskoye - a significant part of the basin lies in the Kemerovo region, where about 80% of coking coal and 56% of hard coal are mined;
• Kansk-Achinsk basin – 12% of brown coal is mined;
• Tunguska basin - located in part of Eastern Siberia, anthracite, brown and hard coal are mined;
• The Pechora basin is rich in coking coal;
• The Irkutsk-Cheremkhovo basin is a source of coal for Irkutsk enterprises.

Coal mining is a very promising sector of the economy today. Experts say that humanity is consuming coal too intensively, so there is a threat that the world's reserves may soon be used up, but some countries have significant reserves of this mineral. Its consumption depends on the application, and if you reduce the consumption of coal, it will last for a longer time.

People have been using coal fuel since ancient times. Its flammability and heat transfer, the duration of heat retention in the hearth became the salvation of people during the cold periods that cyclically replaced each other on our planet. Coal is actively used in modern times; in the fuel and energy complex it is one of the top three raw materials along with oil and gas.

How were coal deposits formed?

Coal deposits formed in places of huge green areas. This is ancient organic matter that remains after the death of tree plantations. In order for dead plants to become coal, it is necessary certain conditions: Wood residues should not rot under the influence of bacteria. This is only possible if they fall under swamp water, and then underground, where oxygen does not flow. Coal is considered a mineral mined from rock layers located at various depths.

How are coal deposits found and developed?

Places where there is coal on the planet have long been explored. Its reserves in different countries huge, they will be enough for heating and industrial needs for almost three centuries. But According to geologists, there may be more of them, since deep geological prospecting for the presence of coal fuel was not carried out in all parts of the world. Development coal deposits is relevant and brings significant income to the states that are engaged in the extraction of this solid black gold. The process of developing deposits is carried out depending on the terrain and the depth of the coal seams.

Since ancient times, coal has been a source of energy for humanity, not the only one, but widely used. Sometimes it is compared to solar energy preserved in stone. It is burned to obtain heat for heating, heating water, converted into electricity at thermal stations, and used for smelting metals.

With the development of new technologies, we have learned to use coal not only to produce energy by burning. The chemical industry has successfully mastered production technologies for rare metals - gallium and germanium. Composite carbon-graphite materials with a high carbon content, gaseous fuel with high calorie content are extracted from it, and plastic production methods have been developed. The lowest grade coal, its very fine fraction and coal dust are processed and are excellent for heating as production premises and private houses. In total, more than 400 types of products are produced using the chemical processing of coal, which can cost tens of times more than the original product.

People have been actively using coal as a fuel for generating and converting energy for several centuries; with the development of the chemical industry and the need for rare and valuable materials in other industries, the need for coal is increasing. Therefore, exploration of new deposits is being intensively carried out, quarries and mines, and raw material processing enterprises are being built.

Briefly about the origin of coal

On our planet, many millions of years ago, vegetation developed rapidly in a humid climate. 210...280 million years have passed since then. For thousands of years, millions of years, billions of tons of vegetation died off, accumulated at the bottom of swamps, and became covered with layers of sediment. Slow decomposition in an oxygen-free atmosphere under the powerful pressure of water, sand, and other rocks, sometimes at high temperatures due to the close proximity of magma, led to the petrification of layers of this vegetation, with gradual degeneration into coal of varying degrees of carbonization.

Main Russian deposits and coal mining

The planet has coal reserves of more than 15 trillion tons. The largest mineral production comes from coal, approximately 0.7 tons per person, which is more than 2.6 billion tons per year. In Russia, hard coal is available in different regions. It has different characteristics, features and depth. Here are the largest and most successfully developed coal basins:

The active use of Siberian and Far Eastern deposits is limited by their remoteness from industrial European regions. In the western part of Russia, coal with excellent performance is also mined: in the Pechersk and Donetsk coal basins. In the Rostov region, local deposits are being actively developed, the most promising of which is Gukovskoye. Processing of hard coal from these deposits produces grades of hard coal high quality— anthracites (AS and AO).

Main quality characteristics of coal

Different industries require different grades of coal. Its qualitative indicators vary widely even among those that have the same marking and largely depend on the deposit. Therefore, before purchasing coal, enterprises become familiar with the following physical characteristics:

According to the degree of enrichment, coal is divided into:

• — Concentrates (burned for heating in steam boilers and obtaining electricity);
• — Industrial products used in the metallurgical industry;
• — Sludge is actually a fine fraction (up to 6 mm) and dust after rock crushing. It is problematic to burn such fuel, therefore briquettes are formed from it, which have good performance characteristics and are used in household solid fuel boilers.

By degree of carbonization:

• — Brown coal, is partially formed coal. It has a low heat of combustion, crumbles during transportation and storage, and has a tendency to spontaneous combustion;
• — Coal. It has many different brands (grades) with different characteristics. It has a wide range of uses: metallurgy, energy, housing and communal services, chemical industry, etc.
• — Anthracite is the highest quality form of coal.

If we compare peat and coal, the calorific value of coal is higher. Brown coal has the lowest calorific value, anthracite has the highest. However, based on economic feasibility, in great demand uses simple coal. It has the optimal combination of price and specific heat of combustion.

There are a lot of different characteristics of coal, but not all of them may be important when choosing coal for heating. In this case, it is important to know just a few key parameters: ash content, moisture and specific heat capacity. Sulfur content may be important. The rest are required when selecting raw materials for processing. What is important to know when choosing coal is the size: how large the pieces are offered to you. This data is encrypted in the brand name.

Size classification:

Classification by brands and their brief characteristics:

Depending on the characteristics of coal, its brand, type and fraction, it is stored different times. (The article contains a table showing the shelf life of coal depending on the deposit and brand).

Particular attention should be paid to protecting coal during long-term storage (more than 6 months). In this case, a special coal shed or bunker is required, where the fuel will be protected from precipitation and direct sunlight.

Large piles of coal during long-term storage require temperature control, since in the presence of small fractions in combination with moisture and high temperature, they tend to spontaneously ignite. It is advisable to purchase electronic thermometer and a thermocouple with a long cord, which should be buried in the center of the coal pile. You need to check the temperature once or twice a week, because some brands of coal spontaneously ignite at very low temperatures: brown - at 40-60 o C, others - 60-70 o C. Cases of spontaneous combustion of anthracite and semi-anthracite rarely occur (in Russia such cases not registered).

Today, coal is the most widely used. With its help they get electrical energy, rare and trace elements, graphite. Coal is an important raw material in the chemical and metallurgical industries. This is why the request “buy coal” comes up very often.

Russia boasts huge coal reserves, the basins and deposits of which are scattered throughout the country. They differ in geological structure, coal quality, coal saturation and age of sediments. Depending on the structural characteristics, Russian basins are classified into folded, transitional and platform.\

Most of the deposits contain humus coals, among which the main place belongs to coking varieties. Main basins: Donetsk, Pechora, South Yakutsk and Kuznetsk. Brown coal deposits are found in the regions of Eastern Siberia and the Urals, as well as in the Moscow basin.

Coal deposits are uneven in the quality of the fossil, the volume of its reserves and the occupied area. In addition, they, like development companies, are located in different regions of the country. Today coal is mined in ten coal basins. The largest deposits are considered to be the Kuznetsk, Kansko-Achinsk, Gorlovka basins and Eastern Donbass.

The Kuznetsk basin is the main coal base of the country and provides half of the total volume of mined raw materials. Almost twelve percent of mining is done by open pit mining. The Kansk-Achinsk basin supplies brown coal, which is considered the cheapest in the country. Due to its low quality, it is poorly transportable, so it mainly ensures the operation of powerful thermal power plants operating on the basis of the largest open-pit mines. The Pechora basin accounts for four percent of the country's coal production. It is located away from industrial centers, mining is carried out only in mines.

Coal mining

Coal is mined in two main ways - closed and open. In the first case, these are mines or cuts. Mine - complex mining enterprise for underground coal mining. On average, she works for about forty years. Coal is mined in layers, each layer taking approximately ten years to remove. After this, the horizon is reconstructed and a deeper layer is developed. The open-pit mine involves excavating coal in benches and successive strips. Coal mined in mines and open pits is sent directly to the consumer or to processing plants, where it is first sorted and then enriched.

Promising coal basins include Lensky, Tungussky and Taimyrsky. They occupy significant areas in sparsely populated areas of Siberia and the Far East. Today, coal production in the western regions is gradually declining, while in the eastern regions it is increasing. One of the oldest basins is Donbass. The coal mined here is of high quality, which distinguishes it from competitors' products.

Coal industry engages in the extraction and primary processing (enrichment) of hard and brown coal and is the largest industry in terms of the number of workers and the cost of production fixed assets.

Coal of Russia

Russia has a variety of types of coal - brown, hard, anthracite - and occupies one of the leading places in the world in terms of reserves. The total geological reserves of coal are 6421 billion tons, of which 5334 billion tons are standard. Over 2/3 of the total reserves are comprised of hard coals. Technological fuel - coking coals - make up 1/10 of the total amount of hard coals.

Coal distribution across the country's territory unevenly. 95% reserves account for eastern regions, of which more than 60% go to Siberia. The bulk of general geological coal reserves are concentrated in the Tunguska and Lena basins. The Kansk-Achinsk and Kuznetsk basins are distinguished by industrial coal reserves.

Coal mining in Russia

In terms of coal production, Russia ranks fifth in the world (after China, the USA, India and Australia), 3/4 of the coal produced is used for energy and heat production, 1/4 in metallurgy and the chemical industry. A small part is exported, mainly to Japan and the Republic of Korea.

Open pit coal mining in Russia is 2/3 of the total volume. This extraction method is considered the most productive and cheapest. However, this does not take into account the severe disturbances of nature associated with it - the creation of deep quarries and extensive dumps of overburden. Mine mining is more expensive and has a high accident rate, which is largely determined by the deterioration of mining equipment (40% of it is outdated and requires urgent modernization).

Coal basins of Russia

The role of a particular coal basin in the territorial division of labor depends on the quality of coal, the size of reserves, technical and economic indicators of production, the degree of preparedness of reserves for industrial exploitation, the size of production, and the characteristics of the transport and geographical location. Based on the totality of these conditions, the following stand out: inter-district coal bases— Kuznetsk and Kansk-Achinsk basins, which together account for 70% of coal production in Russia, as well as the Pechora, Donetsk, Irkutsk-Cheremkhovo and South Yakutsk basins.

Kuznetsk basin, located in the south Western Siberia in the Kemerovo region, is the main coal base of the country and provides half of all-Russian coal production. High quality coal occurs here, including coking coal. Almost 12% of production is carried out by open pit mining. The main centers are Novokuznetsk, Kemerovo, Prokopyevsk, Anzhero-Sudzhensk, Belovo, Leninsk-Kuznetsky.

Kansk-Achinsk basin located in the south of Eastern Siberia in the Krasnoyarsk Territory along the Trans-Siberian Railway and accounts for 12% of coal production in Russia. Brown coal from this basin is the cheapest in the country, since mining is carried out by open-pit mining. Due to its low quality, coal is poorly transportable and therefore powerful thermal power plants operate on the basis of the largest open-pit mines (Irsha-Borodinsky, Nazarovsky, Berezovsky).

Pechora basin is the largest in the European part and accounts for 4% of the country's coal production. It is located far from the most important industrial centers and is located in the Arctic; mining is carried out only by mining. In the northern part of the basin (Vorkutinskoye, Vorgashorskoye deposits) coking coals are mined, in the southern part (Intinskoye deposit) - mainly energy coals. The main consumers of Pechora coal are Cherepovets metallurgical plant, enterprises of the North-West, Center and Central Black Earth Region.

Donetsk basin in the Rostov region is the eastern part of the coal basin located in Ukraine. This is one of the oldest coal mining areas. The mine method of extraction led to the high cost of coal. Coal production is declining every year and in 2007 the basin provided only 2.4% of all-Russian production.

Irkutsk-Cheremkhovo basin in the Irkutsk region ensures low cost of coal, since mining is carried out by open-pit mining and produces 3.4% of coal in the country. Due to the great distance from large consumers, it is used at local power plants.

South Yakutsk basin(3.9% of all-Russian production) is at Far East. Has significant reserves of energy and process fuel, and all mining is carried out by open-pit mining.

Promising coal basins include the Lensky, Tungussky and Taimyrsky, located beyond the Yenisei north of the 60th parallel. They occupy vast spaces in poorly developed and sparsely populated areas of Eastern Siberia and the Far East.

In parallel with the creation of inter-regional coal bases, there was widespread development of local coal basins, which made it possible to bring coal production closer to the areas of its consumption. At the same time, in the western regions of Russia, coal production is declining (Moscow basin), and in the eastern regions it is increasing sharply (deposits of the Novosibirsk region, Trans-Baikal Territory, Primorye.