India’s Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and the Central Institute of Mining and Fuel Research (CIMFR) say they have completed a significant achievement by successfully  conducting the first “cast/throw blast trial” for the implementation of dozer push mining operations at Adani Group’s PEKB (Parsa East and Kanta Basan Coal Block) mine near Ambikapur, Chhattisgarh.

The India-first deployment of this technology will see mining carried out using unmanned machines.

Dr MP Roy, Chief Scientist at CSIR-CIMFR, said the trial involved the drilling of 108 holes autonomously, with 60 t of bulk emulsion used as an explosive. The resultant blasted material is being pushed in a “decoaled area” using dozers.

The first trial of this method has been successfully completed under the leadership of Professor Arvind Kumar Mishra, Director, CSIR-CIMFR.

CSIR-CIMFR said: “The dozer push mining method can be a good alternative to dragline and truck/shovel excavation. It can also speed up the utilisation of the dragline machine, thereby reducing the unit cost rate of the dragline.

“[The] truck-shovel mining method reduces productivity and safety due to mud in [the] haul road during [the] rainy season; in that situation, [the] dozer push mining method can be a good alternative to excavation.”

Adani Group states that the PEKB mine, which commenced production in 2013, has a peak production capacity of 15 Mt/y.