KARACHI (December 02 2008): After recent drilling, an accumulative layer of some 42 meters of coal has been found near Islamkot, block 8 of Thar coal field, it has been reliably learnt by Business Recorder on Monday. The sources said this accumulative layer of some 138 feet includes ever-thickest layer in Thar coal reserves that is 29 meters, earlier the thickest layer was of 22 meters.
The sources said that although these new reserves are included in entire estimated reserves of 175 billion tonnes of Thar coal and 185 billion tonnes of entire Sindh, but it could also increase the total reserves. The sources said the drilling is being carried out by a company Deep Rock Drilling a Karachi based company under contract of Sindh Coal Authority (SCA).
The sources added these reserves were discovered in last week. "It would be premature to estimate exact weight of this new block but it could be some 2 billion tonnes," they added. The source said although the existing coal in Thar coalfield could not be exported and could not be used in cement plants due to its liquefied property, but it is much more suitable for power generation, synthetic fuel and gasification.
They added that the coal has 6500 BTU, a heating value for power generation and perfect for this purpose. Regarding the other properties of this new explored block the source added that it has least amount from 0.8 to 01 percent of Sulphur, which is less harmful for environment, while across the world it is very high in coal even in Lakhara this value, is up to 6-7 percent.
