Coal mining in open pits -- experience in Germany challenge in Bangladesh
Tuesday, 13 April 2010
Dr. Thomas von Schwarzenberg
OPEN pit coal mining in Germany has a tradition of more than a hundred years. Thousands of employees have benefited from their jobs in this sector and about 25% of German electricity is presently generated by coal mined in German open pit mines.
RWE is one of the largest European electricity producers with a total installed power plant capacity of 44,000 MW out of which nearly 11,000 MW are derived from coal mined in open pits, while the remaining power is derived from underground mined coal, gas, nuclear and renewables. Other activities of RWE are the technical, environmental and economical assessment of open pit coal mines around the world. Recent projects were the re-infiltration of ground water in the Indian coal open pit Neyveli, the planning of deepening the open pit coal mine Mae Moh in Thailand to 600 meter depth, a feasibility study on the Barapukuria Mine development or the present assistance in the coal open pit industry development in the Thar Desert of Pakistan.
Open pit mining is often associated with significant impacts on the environment and on citizens living within and around the open pit mining areas. The long tradition in German mining operations has accustomed people to these inconveniences as most of them identify themselves with the operations and are proud to live in an economically important part of Germany where generations of families find jobs in the operations.
Meanwhile the RWE mines in operation altogether have reached a surface area of nearly 100 square kilometres while depth of more than 400 meters is achieved. Nearly 100 Mio tons of coal is mined per year. This leads to significant impacts especially to the groundwater balance, the land of the farmers and the homes of those who live in the mining areas. To this end the following technical and social measures have been in practice for many years and have been well acknowledged and commonly elaborated by government authorities, persons concerned and RWE as operator. Some examples shall illustrate that.
Out of the present 600 Mio cubic meters of abstracted groundwater 50 Mio are locally re-infiltrated into the ground to stabilise the groundwater table close to surface to protect large vulnerable wet land areas with numerous red list fauna and flora. Other groundwater is distributed to villages and cities for drinking purpose. Farmers or industries which lost their own water supply due to lowering of the groundwater table are compensated either by payments or by drilling deeper wells by RWE. Refilled land is reclaimed by own RWE farmers by enriching the soil with humus and nutrients during a four years operation. Then the land is returned to the farmers. These measures are monitored by the Chamber of Agriculture. 260 km2 are already reclaimed. During the last decades 34,000 people have been resettled. This resettlement is a joint act between the government, the resettlers and RWE. The resettlers have the right to choose the location where to be relocated as a community or go wherever they want. They have a voice to decide on the layout of the new village and their new house.
Bangladesh future open pit mines
Barapukuria and Phulbari mine areas show partly similar features with quite thick groundwater horizons the water table of which has to be lowered at pumping rates of around 200 Mio cubic meters per year and partly also re-infiltrated to reduce environmental impacts. Part of this water will be available for the villagers as potable water, similar to the German practice. For both Barapukuria and Phulbari dewatering and re-infiltration scenarios were elaborated by RWE. Resettlement will be also a major issue in the Bangladesh coal fields and the general procedures will be similar to those practiced at the RWE mines for more than fifty years. The Bangladesh open pits will also have large depths of more than 300 meters similar to the RWE operations. Also The Barapukuria/Phulbari mines are planned to be partly refilled and reclaimed for agricultural use. Overburden disposal will start at outside dumps and then gradually be progressed inside the mine likewise the procedure at the RWE mines. All mining, groundwater, environmental and resettlement procedures of the future Bangladesh open pit mining is since long term in practice at the RWE operations where it is elaborated technically detailed and sophisticated and approved by rigorous German mining authorities.
Legal issues
One of the main legal aspects of mining is the mine permit and associated permits such as water permit, environmental permit, waste permits and many others.
The German procedures regarding all these permits are regulated under the German Mining Act. The most important part of this Mining Act is it's §1 which states "The intention of this act is to secure raw material supply by regulating and supporting mining activities" This means an obligation of the government to act responsibly and to promote mining activities. Therefore the German Government is obliged to grant a mining permit when the operator has satisfactorily prepared all technical, environmental, social, and safety regulations required to operate the mine. In this context it is very important that all permits are accurately proved and follow the requirements in the respective acts.
We experience in Germany every year that courts are frequently appealed to withhold the approval for any mining or power plant developments or other large infrastructure projects due to assumed or actual procedural errors. Therefore the very accurate adherence to permit legislation is both in the interest of the government and the operator.
Possible coal production at Barapukuria/ Phulbari
The Barapukuria/Phulbari open pit will be a rather deep hole with a depth of more than 300 meters and will have a quite high costly continuous groundwater pumping rate. In addition, appreciable cost is involved due to re-settling, infrastructure and land reclamation. All these issues will require the mine to be operated with an output of at least 10 Mio tons of coal per year in order to be profitable and also to provide a reasonable amount of working places in the mine the power plant and for subcontractors.
Another criterion for the coal production s the lifetime of the mine. The mineable resources of the Barapukuria/Phulbari deposit are around 800 Mio tons of coal. A lifetime of 50 years should at least be considered as otherwise the new work places would be gone too quickly and nobody would understand why to resettle only for a short boom time. A life time of 50 years would allow a coal production of 16 Mio t per year.
Underground mining would reduce the mineable resources by up to 280 Mio t to about 520 Mio t. This would lead to a national loss in energy value of up to 15 billion US$. This figure shows that beside the mining risk underground mining is out of question.
Another question which was intensively discussed is the possible export of coal. It is understood that the vast majority of the Bangladesh coal must be used in the country to overcome the critical energy situation over a long period into the future. As the future open pit will, however, mine also about 25 % of PCI coal (pulverised coal injection) which is used in blast furnaces, it is worth thinking about having limited coal exports of this high-price coal to improve the negative Bangladesh trade balance and realise somewhat higher taxes or royalties and not to base the coal production only on power generation.
One of the different possible scenarios on the conservative side could therefore be:
3000 MW power plant; 10 Mio t/a coal for the power plant; 1.5 Mio t/a PCI coal for export; 11.5 Mio t/a total coal exploitation; 70 years lifetime of the mine.
Roadmap to coal mining in Bangladesh
During the past years the Bangladesh government has tried to resume coal activities. Up to today these attempts have not been successful. One of the reasons is the lack of spiritedness to act. This is understandable as the country has so far not any experience in such large scale mining projects associated with considerable environmental and social impact. It is also especially the still imponderable reaction of the thousands of villagers at the future mine site who will face far-reaching changes in their daily life.
The Bangladesh government will in any case need support in decision making from independent experienced organisations not only to achieve secured state of knowledge. Moreover it will be necessary to have a neutral independent and from all parties concerned accepted agency to competent assist in tackling and monitoring the upcoming environmental impacts, resettlements and their social effects.
The following immediate measures are necessary:
Presently the only coal areas investigated in more detail are those of Barapukuria and Phulbari. As these deposits have to be regarded as nearly one unit, it is necessary to set up a master plan for their future development. In order not to delay start up of the first mining, the Phulbari deposit as the best investigated should, however, be brought into mining at such design that a continuation of mining into the Barapukuria field is possible without the need to establish new outside dumps and a second residual lake. This would avoid unnecessary land demand.
It must be made sure that all legal aspects for the mining permits are accurately observed to avoid any success of court appeals to enjoin these permits. Be assured that those attempts will happen in the future.
To guarantee long-term competent government control of the operations in view of safety, environmental aspects, and relocation the establishment of an effective and powerful mining authority is inevitable. The present poor control of the risky underground workings at Barapukuria shows that institutional strengthening of this authority is indispensable. Effective government control will also contribute to a better acceptance of the project by the villagers.
The start of coal mining at Phulbari was abruptly interrupted by the events of August 2006. Any future activity must first be reconciled with the citizens of that area. In this respect it is not the technical or legal issues which one has to focus on primarily but the social aspects. These are: Participation, and information of the local people. Creating identification among the people with the project that makes them feel that the future centre of Bangladesh is not Dhaka but their area, their coal, their workforce which is the motor of the future Bangladesh development. Establishment of broad possibilities for the local population to work in the mines and in the future power plants by setting up training schools run by government and operator. Safeguarding that part of the taxes and royalties remain within the local villages to develop infrastructure, education and health system. Only through these measures will it be possible to create a new mutual trust both in the government and the future mine operator.
The main success of the project is inevitably linked to the mobilisation of the villagers. This is also a German experience. They do not rely on technical issues. They must get the feeling that they have a real vision for their future, welfare and prosperity.
The French writer Antoine de Saint-Exupéry has expressed this thus: "If you want to build a ship, don't drum up the men to gather wood, divide the work and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea."
The author is associated with RWE AG
OPEN pit coal mining in Germany has a tradition of more than a hundred years. Thousands of employees have benefited from their jobs in this sector and about 25% of German electricity is presently generated by coal mined in German open pit mines.
RWE is one of the largest European electricity producers with a total installed power plant capacity of 44,000 MW out of which nearly 11,000 MW are derived from coal mined in open pits, while the remaining power is derived from underground mined coal, gas, nuclear and renewables. Other activities of RWE are the technical, environmental and economical assessment of open pit coal mines around the world. Recent projects were the re-infiltration of ground water in the Indian coal open pit Neyveli, the planning of deepening the open pit coal mine Mae Moh in Thailand to 600 meter depth, a feasibility study on the Barapukuria Mine development or the present assistance in the coal open pit industry development in the Thar Desert of Pakistan.
Open pit mining is often associated with significant impacts on the environment and on citizens living within and around the open pit mining areas. The long tradition in German mining operations has accustomed people to these inconveniences as most of them identify themselves with the operations and are proud to live in an economically important part of Germany where generations of families find jobs in the operations.
Meanwhile the RWE mines in operation altogether have reached a surface area of nearly 100 square kilometres while depth of more than 400 meters is achieved. Nearly 100 Mio tons of coal is mined per year. This leads to significant impacts especially to the groundwater balance, the land of the farmers and the homes of those who live in the mining areas. To this end the following technical and social measures have been in practice for many years and have been well acknowledged and commonly elaborated by government authorities, persons concerned and RWE as operator. Some examples shall illustrate that.
Out of the present 600 Mio cubic meters of abstracted groundwater 50 Mio are locally re-infiltrated into the ground to stabilise the groundwater table close to surface to protect large vulnerable wet land areas with numerous red list fauna and flora. Other groundwater is distributed to villages and cities for drinking purpose. Farmers or industries which lost their own water supply due to lowering of the groundwater table are compensated either by payments or by drilling deeper wells by RWE. Refilled land is reclaimed by own RWE farmers by enriching the soil with humus and nutrients during a four years operation. Then the land is returned to the farmers. These measures are monitored by the Chamber of Agriculture. 260 km2 are already reclaimed. During the last decades 34,000 people have been resettled. This resettlement is a joint act between the government, the resettlers and RWE. The resettlers have the right to choose the location where to be relocated as a community or go wherever they want. They have a voice to decide on the layout of the new village and their new house.
Bangladesh future open pit mines
Barapukuria and Phulbari mine areas show partly similar features with quite thick groundwater horizons the water table of which has to be lowered at pumping rates of around 200 Mio cubic meters per year and partly also re-infiltrated to reduce environmental impacts. Part of this water will be available for the villagers as potable water, similar to the German practice. For both Barapukuria and Phulbari dewatering and re-infiltration scenarios were elaborated by RWE. Resettlement will be also a major issue in the Bangladesh coal fields and the general procedures will be similar to those practiced at the RWE mines for more than fifty years. The Bangladesh open pits will also have large depths of more than 300 meters similar to the RWE operations. Also The Barapukuria/Phulbari mines are planned to be partly refilled and reclaimed for agricultural use. Overburden disposal will start at outside dumps and then gradually be progressed inside the mine likewise the procedure at the RWE mines. All mining, groundwater, environmental and resettlement procedures of the future Bangladesh open pit mining is since long term in practice at the RWE operations where it is elaborated technically detailed and sophisticated and approved by rigorous German mining authorities.
Legal issues
One of the main legal aspects of mining is the mine permit and associated permits such as water permit, environmental permit, waste permits and many others.
The German procedures regarding all these permits are regulated under the German Mining Act. The most important part of this Mining Act is it's §1 which states "The intention of this act is to secure raw material supply by regulating and supporting mining activities" This means an obligation of the government to act responsibly and to promote mining activities. Therefore the German Government is obliged to grant a mining permit when the operator has satisfactorily prepared all technical, environmental, social, and safety regulations required to operate the mine. In this context it is very important that all permits are accurately proved and follow the requirements in the respective acts.
We experience in Germany every year that courts are frequently appealed to withhold the approval for any mining or power plant developments or other large infrastructure projects due to assumed or actual procedural errors. Therefore the very accurate adherence to permit legislation is both in the interest of the government and the operator.
Possible coal production at Barapukuria/ Phulbari
The Barapukuria/Phulbari open pit will be a rather deep hole with a depth of more than 300 meters and will have a quite high costly continuous groundwater pumping rate. In addition, appreciable cost is involved due to re-settling, infrastructure and land reclamation. All these issues will require the mine to be operated with an output of at least 10 Mio tons of coal per year in order to be profitable and also to provide a reasonable amount of working places in the mine the power plant and for subcontractors.
Another criterion for the coal production s the lifetime of the mine. The mineable resources of the Barapukuria/Phulbari deposit are around 800 Mio tons of coal. A lifetime of 50 years should at least be considered as otherwise the new work places would be gone too quickly and nobody would understand why to resettle only for a short boom time. A life time of 50 years would allow a coal production of 16 Mio t per year.
Underground mining would reduce the mineable resources by up to 280 Mio t to about 520 Mio t. This would lead to a national loss in energy value of up to 15 billion US$. This figure shows that beside the mining risk underground mining is out of question.
Another question which was intensively discussed is the possible export of coal. It is understood that the vast majority of the Bangladesh coal must be used in the country to overcome the critical energy situation over a long period into the future. As the future open pit will, however, mine also about 25 % of PCI coal (pulverised coal injection) which is used in blast furnaces, it is worth thinking about having limited coal exports of this high-price coal to improve the negative Bangladesh trade balance and realise somewhat higher taxes or royalties and not to base the coal production only on power generation.
One of the different possible scenarios on the conservative side could therefore be:
3000 MW power plant; 10 Mio t/a coal for the power plant; 1.5 Mio t/a PCI coal for export; 11.5 Mio t/a total coal exploitation; 70 years lifetime of the mine.
Roadmap to coal mining in Bangladesh
During the past years the Bangladesh government has tried to resume coal activities. Up to today these attempts have not been successful. One of the reasons is the lack of spiritedness to act. This is understandable as the country has so far not any experience in such large scale mining projects associated with considerable environmental and social impact. It is also especially the still imponderable reaction of the thousands of villagers at the future mine site who will face far-reaching changes in their daily life.
The Bangladesh government will in any case need support in decision making from independent experienced organisations not only to achieve secured state of knowledge. Moreover it will be necessary to have a neutral independent and from all parties concerned accepted agency to competent assist in tackling and monitoring the upcoming environmental impacts, resettlements and their social effects.
The following immediate measures are necessary:
Presently the only coal areas investigated in more detail are those of Barapukuria and Phulbari. As these deposits have to be regarded as nearly one unit, it is necessary to set up a master plan for their future development. In order not to delay start up of the first mining, the Phulbari deposit as the best investigated should, however, be brought into mining at such design that a continuation of mining into the Barapukuria field is possible without the need to establish new outside dumps and a second residual lake. This would avoid unnecessary land demand.
It must be made sure that all legal aspects for the mining permits are accurately observed to avoid any success of court appeals to enjoin these permits. Be assured that those attempts will happen in the future.
To guarantee long-term competent government control of the operations in view of safety, environmental aspects, and relocation the establishment of an effective and powerful mining authority is inevitable. The present poor control of the risky underground workings at Barapukuria shows that institutional strengthening of this authority is indispensable. Effective government control will also contribute to a better acceptance of the project by the villagers.
The start of coal mining at Phulbari was abruptly interrupted by the events of August 2006. Any future activity must first be reconciled with the citizens of that area. In this respect it is not the technical or legal issues which one has to focus on primarily but the social aspects. These are: Participation, and information of the local people. Creating identification among the people with the project that makes them feel that the future centre of Bangladesh is not Dhaka but their area, their coal, their workforce which is the motor of the future Bangladesh development. Establishment of broad possibilities for the local population to work in the mines and in the future power plants by setting up training schools run by government and operator. Safeguarding that part of the taxes and royalties remain within the local villages to develop infrastructure, education and health system. Only through these measures will it be possible to create a new mutual trust both in the government and the future mine operator.
The main success of the project is inevitably linked to the mobilisation of the villagers. This is also a German experience. They do not rely on technical issues. They must get the feeling that they have a real vision for their future, welfare and prosperity.
The French writer Antoine de Saint-Exupéry has expressed this thus: "If you want to build a ship, don't drum up the men to gather wood, divide the work and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea."
The author is associated with RWE AG