Coal in Russia: main deposits, coal classification and characteristics. Coal: mining in Russia and in the world. Places and methods of coal mining Main coal deposits

Since I live in the land of miners, I could not help but become interested in the methods of extracting this mineral, of which, by the way, there are not so many. Taking this opportunity, I will try to briefly talk about the pros and cons of each of them.

Coal mining: mine method

Mining the fossil in this way offers a huge advantage, since the most valuable fuels are found at great depths. At the same time, coal practically does not contain waste rocks, which cannot be said about the open method, but about it a little later. So, in order to get to the deposits, deep vertical tunnels are drilled. As soon as a formation is found, its horizontal development begins. Sometimes the depth reaches 1.5 km, for example, the Gvardeyskaya mine, which is located in the Donbass. However, this method contains many disadvantages:

the threat of flooding;
since methane is an eternal companion of coal seams, it is fraught with suffocation of workers or undermining;
the deeper the depth, the higher the temperature, which means there is a risk to people and equipment.

In the world, about 40% of the world's reserves are mined in this way.

Coal mining: open-pit or open-pit mining

In this case, there is no need not only for expensive drilling, but also for the construction of a number of ground communications. The bottom line is to undermine waste rock, and then huge excavators, crushers and trucks come into play, which process the rock and take it to the dumps. This method is less dangerous, but still there are some risks associated with it. This is the threat of unplanned detonation, and the poisoning of workers by exhaust, and careless handling of traumatic equipment.

Hydraulic coal mining

In principle, this is the same mine, but there is one peculiarity: the transportation of the fossil is carried out by a stream of water under enormous pressure. It turns out that underground waters are a headache for miners, they work for their benefit. Today this method is considered one of the best, since it replaces the laborious process of transportation. The disadvantages include the dependence of production on the type of rock, and the constant contact of water with equipment.

Coal mining as an industrial branch became widespread at the beginning of the twentieth century and to this day continues to be one of the most profitable types of mining. Coal is mined on an industrial scale all over the world.

Contrary to popular belief, this fossil is used not only as a quality fuel. In the middle of the twentieth century, the coal industry gave a powerful impetus to the development of scientific research on the extraction of hydrocarbons from minerals.

Where is the mining

The largest countries mining hard coal are China, USA, India. ranks 6th in the world ranking for its production, although it is among the top three in terms of reserves.

In Russia, brown coal, coal, hard coal (including coking coal) and anthracite are mined. The main coal-mining regions in Russia are the Kemerovo Region, Krasnoyarsk Territory, Irkutsk Region, Chita, Buryatia, and the Komi Republic. There is coal in the Urals, the Far East, Kamchatka, Yakutia, Tula and Kaluga regions. There are 16 coal basins in Russia. One of the largest - more than half of Russia's coal is mined there.

How coal is mined

Depending on the depth of the coal seam, its area, shape, thickness, various geographic and environmental factors, a certain method of coal mining is selected. The main such methods include the following:

mine;
development in a coal open pit;
hydraulic.

In addition, there is opencast coal mining, provided that the coal seam lies at a depth of no more than one hundred meters. But this method is very similar in shape to open pit coal mining.

Mine way

This method is used at great depths and has an indisputable advantage over open methods of coal mining: coal at great depths is of higher quality and practically does not contain impurities.

To access the coal seams, horizontal or vertical tunnels (adits and shafts) are drilled. There are known cases of coal mining at a depth of 1500 meters (mines "Gvardeyskaya", "Shakhtyorskaya-Glubokaya").

Underground coal mining is considered one of the most difficult specializations due to a number of dangers:

Constant threat of groundwater breakthrough into the shaft.
Constant threat of accompanying gases breakthrough into the shaft. In addition to possible suffocation, explosions and fires are a particular danger.
Accidents due to high temperatures at great depths (up to 60 degrees), careless handling of equipment, etc.

In this way, approximately 36% of the world's coal reserves are extracted from the earth's interior, which is 2,625.7 million tons.

Open way

The development of software in a coal open pit is classified as open pit mining, since it does not require the drilling of mines and adits to great depths.

This mining method consists in undermining and removing overburden (a layer of excess rocks over coal deposits) from the mining site. After that, with the help of excavators, water cannons, bulldozers, crushers, draglines and conveyors, the rock is crushed and transferred further.

This method of coal mining is considered less safe than closed (mine). But it also has certain risk factors associated with careless handling of equipment and large vehicles, the possibility of poisoning by exhaust gases and substances accompanying machine activity.

A significant disadvantage of this method is considered to cause great harm to the environment due to the removal of a large area of the land layer and its accompanying natural elements.

The open-cut method is considered one of the most widespread in the world - it produces more than 55% of coal per year, which is 4102.1 million tons.

It was first used in the Soviet Union in the 30s of the twentieth century. It involves the extraction of coal in deep mines, while the transportation of coal to the surface occurs using energized water jets. This method made it possible to use the lack of underground coal mining - underground water - for your own good.

Recently, hydraulic coal mining is considered one of the most respectable methods. It can replace the laborious and dangerous process of coal mining by miners, instead of which water will act as a destructive and lifting force.

The disadvantages of this method of coal mining include the following:

constant contact of working tools and mechanisms with water and rocks;
certain difficulties in replacing or repairing working equipment;
dependence of the coal mining process on the thickness, angle of inclination and hardness of the rock.

This method produces about 7.5% of coal annually, which is 545.5 million tons.

Coal industry is engaged 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 various types of coal - brown, bituminous, anthracite - and takes one of the leading places in the world in terms of reserves... The total geological reserves of coal amount to 6421 billion tons, of which conditional - 5334 billion tons. Over 2/3 of the total reserves are hard coals. Process fuel - coking coal - makes up 1/10 of the total amount of coal.

Coal distribution across the country is extremely unevenly. 95% reserves account for eastern regions, of which more than 60% - to Siberia. The main part of the general geological coal reserves is 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 mined is used for the production of energy and heat, 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 mining method is considered the most productive and cheapest. However, this does not take into account the associated strong disturbances of nature - the creation of deep quarries and extensive overburden dumps. Mine production 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 this or that coal basin in the territorial division of labor depends on the quality of coal, the size of reserves, the technical and economic indicators of production, the degree of preparedness of the reserves for industrial exploitation, the size of production, and the peculiarities of the transport and geographical location. By the combination of these conditions, interdistrict coal bases- Kuznetsk and Kansk-Achinsk basins, which together account for 70% of coal production in Russia, as well as the Pechora, Donetsk, Irkutsk-Cheremkhov and South Yakutsk basins.

Kuznetsk Basin, located in the south of 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, including coking coal, is found here. Almost 12% of mining is carried out in an open pit. The main centers are Novokuznetsk, Kemerovo, Prokopyevsk, Anzhero-Sudzhensk, Belovo, Leninsk-Kuznetskiy.

Kansk-Achinsk basin is located in the south of Eastern Siberia in the Krasnoyarsk Territory along the Trans-Siberian Railway and provides 12% of coal production in Russia. Brown coal from this basin is the cheapest in the country, since it is mined in an open pit. Due to its poor quality, coal is not easily 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 provides 4% of coal production in the country. It is remote from the most important industrial centers and is located in the Arctic Circle; mining is carried out only by the mine method. In the northern part of the basin (Vorkutinskoye, Vorgashorskoye deposits), coking coal is mined, in the southern part (Intinskoye deposit) - mainly energy coals. The main consumers of Pechora coal are the 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. It is one of the oldest coal mining areas. The mine method of mining led to the high cost of coal. Coal production is decreasing every year and in 2007 the basin gave only 2.4% of the total Russian production.

Irkutsk-Cheremkhovsky basin in the Irkutsk region provides a low cost of coal, as mining is carried out by open pit mining and gives 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 located in the Far East. It possesses significant reserves of energy and technological fuel, and all production is carried out in an open pit.

The prospective coal basins include Lensky, Tunguska and Taimyr, located beyond the Yenisei to the north of the 60th parallel. They occupy vast areas in underdeveloped and sparsely populated areas of Eastern Siberia and the Far East.

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

Coal is a sedimentary rock that forms in the earth's seam. Coal is an excellent fuel. It is believed that this is the most ancient type of fuel used by our distant ancestors.

How bituminous coal is formed

A huge amount of plant matter is needed to form coal. And it is better if the plants accumulate in one place and do not have time to decompose completely. The ideal place for this is swamps. The water in them is poor in oxygen, which interferes with the vital activity of bacteria.

Vegetation accumulates in the swamps. Not having time to completely rot, it is compressed by the following soil deposits. This is how peat is obtained - the starting material for coal. The next layers of soil, as it were, seal the peat in the ground. As a result, it is completely deprived of oxygen and water access and turns into a coal seam. This process is lengthy. So, most of the modern reserves of coal were formed in the Paleozoic era, that is, more than 300 million years ago.

Characteristics and types of coal

(Brown coal)

The chemical composition of coal depends on its age.

The youngest species is brown coal. It lies at a depth of about 1 km. There is still a lot of water in it - about 43%. Contains a large amount of volatile substances. It ignites well and burns, but gives little heat.

Bituminous coal is a kind of "middle peasant" in this classification. It occurs at depths of up to 3 km. Since the pressure of the upper layers is higher, the water content in coal is less - about 12%, volatiles - up to 32%, but carbon contains from 75% to 95%. It is also highly flammable but burns better. And due to the small amount of moisture, it gives more heat.

Anthracite- an older breed. It occurs at a depth of about 5 km. It has more carbon and virtually no moisture. Anthracite is a solid fuel, it is poorly flammable, but the specific heat of combustion is the highest - up to 7400 kcal / kg.

(Coal anthracite)

However, anthracite is not the final stage in the transformation of organic matter. When exposed to more severe conditions, coal is transformed into shuntite. At higher temperatures, graphite is obtained. And under ultra-high pressure, coal turns into diamond. All these substances - from plant to diamond - are made of carbon, only the molecular structure is different.

In addition to the main "ingredients", various "rocks" are often included in the composition of coal. These are impurities that do not burn, but form a slag. Sulfur is also contained in coal, and its content is determined by the place of coal formation. When burned, it reacts with oxygen to form sulfuric acid. The less impurities in the composition of coal, the higher its grade is valued.

Coal deposit

The place of occurrence of coal is called a coal basin. More than 3.6 thousand coal basins are known in the world. Their area occupies about 15% of the earth's land area. The United States has the largest percentage of the world's coal reserves at 23%, followed by Russia at 13%. China closes the top three with 11%. The largest coal deposits in the world are located in the United States. This is the Appalachian coal basin, whose reserves exceed 1,600 billion tons.

In Russia, the largest coal basin is Kuznetsk, in the Kemerovo region. Kuzbass reserves amount to 640 billion tons.

The development of deposits in Yakutia (Elginskoe) and in Tyva (Elegestskoe) is promising.

Coal mining

Depending on the depth of the coal, either a closed mining method or an open one is used.

Closed or underground mining method. For this method, mine shafts and adits are built. Shafts are built if the depth of coal is 45 meters or more. A horizontal tunnel leads from it - an adit.

There are 2 closed-pit mining systems: chamber-and-pillar mining and longwall mining. The first system is less economical. It is used only in cases where the layers found are thick. The second system is much safer and more practical. It allows you to extract up to 80% of the rock and evenly deliver the coal to the surface.

The open method is used when the coal is shallow. To begin with, an analysis of the hardness of the soil is carried out, the degree of weathering of the soil and the layering of the covering layer are determined. If the soil above the coal seams is soft, use of bulldozers and scrapers is sufficient. If the top layer is thick, then excavators and draglines are brought in. A thick layer of hard rock overlying the coal is blown up.

Application of hard coal

The area of use of coal is enormous.

Sulfur, vanadium, germanium, zinc, lead are mined from coal.

Coal itself is an excellent fuel.

It is used in metallurgy for iron smelting, in the production of cast iron, steel.

Ash obtained after burning coal is used in the production of building materials.

After special treatment of coal, benzene and xylene are obtained, which are used in the production of varnishes, paints, solvents, and linoleum.

By liquefying coal, a first-class liquid fuel is obtained.

Coal is a raw material for producing graphite. As well as naphthalene and a number of other aromatic compounds.

As a result of the chemical treatment of coal, over 400 types of industrial products are obtained today.