Narva underground oil shale mine to go longwall by 2020/2021

The state-owned Estonian energy group Eesti Energia is planning to start oil shale extraction by means of longwall mining at the Narva mine in late 2020 or in early 2021 and to extract some 3 Mt of oil shale at the mine per year, according to LETA/BNS and reported as follows in The Baltic Course.

“If everything goes as planned, we hope to get the first output from the underground mine at the end of 2020 or at the beginning of 2021,” Eesti Energia board member Andres Vainola said at an environment and energy conference of Eesti Energia. He added that the annual volume of output could rise to almost 3 Mt in 2021, which corresponds to over 6 terawatt-hours of primary energy. The Eesti Energia board member said that an international procurement to buy necessary equipment has been announced and there are many parties that have shown interest in the tender. Several offers have been made. “We are negotiating with four or five suppliers at least,” Vainola said.

Eesti Energia is switching from open-pit mining to underground mining because as the oil shale mining front in northeastern Estonia moves to the south, where the layer of oil shale lies deeper, the cost of earth removal in open pit mining becomes too high. In addition, the longwall method allows to cut losses.

“Longwall mining will reduce oil shale loses to 5-10%. With the room and pillar method that we have been using in underground mining so far we leave 22-35% of oil shale below ground to underpin the surface. In longwall mining the ground is let to collapse and we can bring out more of the oil shale,” Eesti Energia board member Margus Vals said in 2016.

In the international public procurement tender, Eesti Energia is procuring an underground longwall shearer, roof supports and the necessary support infrastructure for the shearer, including power supply, a conveyor system and a crusher.