INDIAN TERTIARY COAL 



COAL 



Occurrence 



Younger 

 Coal. 



ed is --Id to the Indian Midland and to the Bengal-Nagpur Rail- 

 [<'/. Ann. Hr ft*. Kftcali .sV/- (W//Ti, 1899 l.Mi:f.] 

 (If) CRETACEOUS AND TERTIARY COALFIELDS." The younger 

 1- an- m-arlv all of Cretaceous and Tertiary age, although some thin 

 poor seams of Upper Jurassic coal have lieen worked in Kach. 

 ( 'n taceous beds occur in the Khasia and Garo hills of Assam, where 

 - an- loiind in small basins resting on the Arch.-ran si -lusts and gneisses. 

 Cretaceous coals of Assam are generally distinguished by the 

 ision in tin-in ol' nests of fossil resin, and this character was noticed 

 he coal recently discovered to the north of Shillong." 



.al of Tertiary age is found in Sind, Rajputana, Baluchistan and 

 11: the foothills of the Himalaya, further east in Assam, in Burma, and 

 the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The most frequent occurrence is 

 association with nnmmulitic limestones, though the richest deposits, 

 ielv those in North-East Assam, are younger, probably Miocene in 

 Of these extra-Peninsular fields, the only ones producing coal are 

 Tertiary age." 



" On the whole, the younger coals, which are being worked in extra- 

 linsular areas, differ from the Gondwana coals in containing a larger 

 >portion of moisture and volatile hydrocarbons, and though as variable 

 composition as they are in thickness of seam, coals are obtained, as for 

 ince in Assam, with a remarkably low percentage of ash, and having 



calorific value." 



8. Makum in North-East Assam. This is being worked by the Assam Makum. 

 ilways and Trading Company, who commenced operations in 1881. 

 le collieries are connected by a metre-gauge railway with Dibrugarh on 

 Brahmaputra river, which, being navigable, forms both a market 

 a means of transport for the coal. The most valuable seams occur 

 rween the Tirap and Namdang streams, where, for a distance of about 

 miles, the seams vary from 15 to 75 feet in thickness. The average 

 is 40, but as the outcrops in many places are several hundred feet above 

 plains, facilities exist for working the coal by adit levels." " The 

 il has the reputation of being a good fuel, and forms an excellent coke." 

 f. Mallet, Coal Fields Naga Hills, Assam, in Mem. Geol. Surv. Ind., 1876, 

 La Touche, Coal Fields Jaintia Hills, 1889 ; Bose, Rept. on Urn- 

 Coal-beds, Assam, in Rec. Geol. Surv. Ind., 1904, xxxi. ; A.R.T.C., 

 ., Ann. Repts., Nos. 1-21.] 



Shwebo District In Burma. Coal occurs in various parts of 

 Within the past few years it has, for example, been definitely 



Burma. 



irma. 



attained that in the Nammaw field (30 miles from the Mandalay-Lashio 

 Iway) there are seams of lignitic coal 10 feet thick. [Cf. Jones, Notes 

 Coal, Upper Burma, in Rec. Geol. Surv. Ind., 1887, xx., 170-93 ; Noetling, 

 Chindwin Coal-fields, 1890 ; Primrose, Rept. Prosp. Oper. in Te- 

 sserim, 1891-2 ; Bose, Notes on Geol. Tenasserim Valley, in Rec. Geol. 

 Ind., 1893, xxvi., 148-64 ; George Scott, Upper Burma Gaz., ii., 

 1 .. L'30-8 ; Nisbet, Burma Under Brit. Rule and Before, 1901, i., 389-92.] 



10. Baluchistan. Possibly the most important coal-deposits of the Baluchi- 

 st are those in Baluchistan, where, however, the disturbed state of the stan. 



rocks makes mining difficult, expensive and dangerous. The best mines 

 are those of Sor (south-east of Quetta), the Bolan and Khost. From 

 the last-mentioned mine the output in 1906 amounted to 32,500 tons. 



11. Dandot in the Jhelum District of the Pan jab. The Dandot Dandot. 



GO i - ~ 



