OF MINES 



COAL 



Occurrence 



: tint n. -in- .,: tli.- i-arly Europe. Len in ludia make 



in. -nil. >M of coal, prior !- th-- tir-i deoadi ol the I 'ih century. Thin is 

 minium Is .'\.'iii|.hli.-.l l.y tin- silence of Milhurn (Or. Comm., 1813) un-l -if 

 .n // -'. Kurop. Com in. Iinl.. isl-J), two authors who wen- 

 chapter-" <>n Indian i-..itl and India's requirements in coal ha i 

 questions ot puMic importance at tin- tirn.- in which they svr-.te. 



OCCURRENCE AND DISTRIBUTION OF COAL IN INDIA. 



Holland (lin\ Mt,i. /'//. //<-/.. 1905, 1907) has furnished so compre- 

 sive a statement of India's coal resources that it is hardly necessary 

 do more than give an abstract of his opinions in order to bring the 

 tionary up to date. He confines attention to the coalfields actually 

 rocked or those likely to be worked in the near future. The parti- 

 irs that follow in this chapter are, therefore, derived very largely from 

 Hand's instructive and practical Reviews : 



" Most of the coal raised has been obtained from the Gondwana system 

 strata in Peninsular India, where the coal-mines, being nearer the coast 

 generally within touch of the main railway lines, have been develop 1 

 sre rapidly than those of the extra-Peninsular Cretaceous and Tertiary 

 l-beds." The Gondwana mines furnished in 1906, 95*56 per cent, of 

 total supply. It may be useful to exhibit the chief groups of mines 

 egorically : 



M) QONDWANA COALFIELDS. -1. Raniganj and Jherria in 

 tngal. Raniganj was the first to be developed and formerly had the 

 jest output, but since 1906 the lead has been taken by the Jherria mines 

 ther west in the Damuda valley. These mines are tapped by the E.I.R. 

 id by the B.N.R. systems. " The coal from the Raniganj field is mainly 

 rived from seams in the highest beds of the Damuda series, the lowest, or 

 ikar stage, being less developed in the exposures along the northern 

 ot the field. In the Jherria field the converse is the case : the 

 jpermost stage has yielded poor coal, whilst in the Barakar series there are 

 le eighteen well defined seams of which the upper eight include enormous 

 applies of good coal. The two classes of coal present a well-marked and 

 stant difference in the amount of moisture they contain : the older, 

 irakar, coals, both in the Raniganj field and in Jherria, contain on an 

 erage about 1 per cent, of moisture, whilst the average for the younger 

 il of the Raniganj series is 3*8 per cent, in the lower seams, and nearly 

 per cent, in the upper seams. There is a corresponding, but less 

 irked, difference in the proportion of volatile hydrocarbons, which form 

 larger percentage of the younger coals than of those at lower stages in 

 Damuda series." 



2. Qlridih in Bengal. " The small patch of coal-bearing Gondwana 

 jks near Giridih is practically divided between the Bengal Coal and 



East Indian Railway Companies. The chief wealth of the field is 

 >red in a 15-foot seam of good steam and coking coal near the base of 

 Damuda series." It has been estimated that the remaining workable 

 Dplies probably do not exceed 77 million tons. [C/. Saise, Giridih 

 Coal Fields and Notes on Methods of Working, in Rec. Geol. Surv. Ind., 

 1894, xxvii., 86-100.] 



3. Pench Valley In the Central Provinces. An interesting develop- 

 ment is the opening out of the Pench supplies. In 1905 the production was 

 1,104 tons, and in 1906, 32,102 in spite (adds Holland) of the imperfect 

 railway facilities. This field is of special value to the mills of Bombay and 

 the Deccan. 



335 



Early 

 Tnrelltn. 



India's 



Coal 



Resource?. 



Raniganj 

 and 



Jherria 

 Coalfields. 



Amount of 

 Moisture. 



Qiridih. 



