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14 comments on What Future for Coal in South Africa?

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ericy on August 12, 2008 - 9:07am Permalink | Subthread | Comments top

If one used UCG long enough, wouldn't that undermine the surface and eventually cause subsidence? With a regular mine, they leave pillars behind to support the surface - with an underground fire like this, it is haphazard and you wouldn't have a good way of doing that.

I suppose that would mean that the surface underneath the mine is essentially unusable for many purposes.

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drillo on August 13, 2008 - 12:16pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

UCG is especially advantageous for very thin coal seams, which are too thin to be accessed by men and/or machines, which means relatively little subsidence. Furthermore the coal generally is going deeper and in great depths the subsidence is widely dispersed, which helps to avoid surface damages. Maybe material can be blown in from above ground. Or parts of the coal is left unburndet (perhaps unintentionally, as it is not so easy to keep it burning regularly).
But as I wrote all is still in an experimental stadium.

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14 comments on What Future for Coal in South Africa?

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