Coal in Russia: main deposits, coal classification and characteristics. Coal: mining in Russia and in the world. Places and methods of coal mining The most important coal deposits

In Russia, the Siberian Federal District produces more than 80% of coal from the total volume in the country. Coal production has been on the rise in recent years. The industry leader is OAO SUEK.

The largest branch (in terms of the number of workers and the cost of production fixed assets) of the fuel industry is coal mining in Russia. The coal industry extracts, processes (enriches) coal, lignite and anthracites.

How and how much coal is produced in the Russian Federation

This mineral is mined depending on the depth of location: open (in cuts) and underground (in mines) methods. Between 2000 and 2015, underground production increased from 90.9 to 103.7 million tons, while open-pit production increased by more than 100 million tons from 167.5 to 269.7 million tons. The amount of the mineral mined in the country during this period, broken down by production methods, see fig. one.

According to the Fuel and Energy Complex (FEC) in Russian Federation in 2016, 385 million tons of black mineral were mined, which is 3.2% higher than the previous year. This allows us to conclude that the growth dynamics of the industry in last years and about prospects, despite the crisis.

The types of this mineral, mined in our country, are divided into power and coking coals. In the total volume for the period from 2010 to 2015, the share of energy production increased from 197.4 to 284.4 million tons. See fig. 2.

Source: Coal magazine according to Rosstat

How many black minerals are in the country and where is it mined

According to Rosstat, the Russian Federation (157 billion tons) ranks second after the United States (237.3 billion tons) in the world in terms of coal reserves. The Russian Federation accounts for about 18% of all world reserves. See figure 3.

Source: Rosstat

Information from Rosstat for 2010-2015 suggests that mining in the country is carried out in 25 subjects of the Federation in 7 Federal Districts. There are 192 coal enterprises. Among them are 71 mines, and 121 coal mines. Their combined production capacity is 408 million tons. More than 80% of it is mined in Siberia. Coal mining in Russia by region is shown in Table 1.

Source: Ministry of Energy of the Russian Federation

In 2016, 227,400 thousand tons. mined in the Kemerovo region (such cities with one industry affiliation are called single-industry towns), of which about 125,000 thousand tons were exported.

Kuzbass accounts for about 60% of domestic coal production, there are about 120 mines and cuts.

At the beginning of February 2017, a new open-pit mine was launched in the Kemerovo region - Trudarmeisky Yuzhny with a design capacity of 2,500 thousand tons per year.

In 2017, it is planned to produce 1,500 thousand tons of minerals at the open pit, and, according to forecasts, the open pit will reach its design capacity in 2018. Also in 2017, three new enterprises are planned to be launched in Kuzbass.

The largest deposits

On the territory of the Russian Federation there are 22 coal basins (according to Rosstat for 2014) and 129 individual deposits. More than 2/3 of the reserves of those that have already been explored are concentrated in the Kansk-Achinsk (79.3 billion tons) and Kuznetsk (53.4 billion tons) basins. They are located on the territory of the Kemerovo region of the Krasnoyarsk Territory.

Also among the largest basins are: Irkutsk, Pechora, Donetsk, South Yakutsk, Minusinsk, and others. Figure 4 shows the structure of explored reserves for the main basins.

Source: Rosstat

Import Export

The Russian Federation is one of the three largest exporters of coal after Australia (export volume 390 million tons) and Indonesia (330 million tons) in 2015. The share of Russia in 2015 - 156 million tons of black fossil went for export. This indicator for the country has grown by 40 million tons in five years. In addition to the Russian Federation, Australia and Indonesia, the top six countries include the United States of America, Colombia and South Africa. The structure of world exports is shown in fig. 5.

Rice. 5: Structure of world exports (largest exporting countries).

Since ancient times, coal has been a source of energy for mankind, not the only one, but widely used. Sometimes it is compared to solar energy preserved in stone. It is burned to obtain heat for heating, heating water, converted into electricity at thermal stations, and used for smelting metals.

With the development of new technologies, people have learned to use coal not only to obtain energy by burning. The chemical industry has successfully mastered the production technology of rare metals - gallium and germanium. Composite carbon-graphite materials with a high carbon content, gaseous high-calorie fuel are extracted from it, and methods for the production of plastics are worked out. The lowest-grade coal, its very fine fraction and coal dust are processed and which are excellent for heating both industrial premises and private houses. Total via chemical processing hard coal produce more than 400 items of products, which can cost ten times more than the original product.

For several centuries, people have been actively using coal as a fuel for generating and converting energy, with the development of the chemical industry and the need for rare and valuable materials in other industries, the need for coal is increasing. Therefore, exploration of new deposits is being intensively carried out, quarries and mines, enterprises for processing raw materials are being built.

Briefly about the origin of coal

On our planet, many millions of years ago, vegetation flourished in a humid climate. Since then, 210 ... 280 million years have passed. For thousands of years, millions of years, billions of tons of vegetation died off, accumulated at the bottom of the swamps, covered with layers of sediment. Slow decomposition in an oxygen-free atmosphere under powerful pressure of water, sand, other rocks, sometimes at high temperatures due to the proximity of magma, led to the petrification of the layers of this vegetation, with a gradual transformation into coal of varying degrees of coalification.

The main Russian deposits and mining of hard coal

There are more than 15 trillion tons of coal reserves on the planet. The largest mineral extraction comes from hard coal, at about 0.7 tons per person, which is more than 2.6 billion tons per year. In Russia, coal is available in different regions. It has different characteristics, features and depth of occurrence. Here are the largest and most successfully developed coal basins:

The active use of Siberian and Far Eastern deposits limits their remoteness from industrial European regions. In the western part of Russia, coal is also mined with excellent performance: in the Pechersk and Donetsk coal basins. In the Rostov region, local deposits are being actively developed, the most promising of them is Gukovskoye. Processing of coal from these deposits produces high quality grades of coal - anthracites (AS and AO).

The main qualitative characteristics of hard coal

Different industries require different grades of coal. Its qualitative indicators vary over a wide range even for those that have the same marking and largely depend on the deposit. Therefore, enterprises, before purchasing coal, get acquainted with its physical characteristics:

According to the degree of enrichment, coal is divided into:

• - Concentrates (burned for heating in steam boilers and generating electricity);
• – Industrial products used in the metallurgical industry;
• - Sludge, in fact, it is a fine fraction (up to 6 mm) and dust after rock crushing. It is problematic to burn such fuel, therefore briquettes are formed from it, which have good performance characteristics and are used in domestic solid fuel boilers.

According to the degree of coalification:

• — Brown coal is partially formed bituminous coal. It has a low calorific value, crumbles during transportation and storage, has a tendency to spontaneous combustion;
• - Coal. It has many different brands (grades) with different characteristics. It has a wide range of applications: metallurgy, energy, housing and communal services, chemical industry etc.
• — Anthracite is the highest quality form of hard coal.

Compared to peat and coal, the calorific value of coal is higher. Brown coal has the lowest calorific value, and anthracite has the highest. However, based on economic feasibility, ordinary coal is in great demand. It has an optimal combination of price and specific heat of combustion.

There are a lot of different characteristics of coal, but not all of them can be important when choosing coal for heating. In this case, it is important to know just a few key parameters: ash content, humidity and specific heat capacity. The sulfur content may be important. The rest are required when selecting raw materials for processing. What is important to know when choosing coal is the size: how large pieces are offered to you. This data is encrypted in the brand name.

Size classification:

Classification by brands and their brief description:

Depending on the characteristics of coal, its brand, type and fraction, it is stored for different times. (There is a table in the article that shows the shelf life of coal depending on the deposit and brand).

Particular attention should be paid to the protection of coal during long-term storage (more than 6 months). In this case, a special coal shed or bunker is required, where the fuel will be protected from precipitation and direct sunlight.

Large piles of coal during long-term storage require temperature control, since in the presence of small fractions, in combination with moisture and high temperature, they tend to ignite spontaneously. It is advisable to purchase an electronic thermometer and a thermocouple with a long cord, which is buried in the center of the coal heap. You need to check the temperature once or twice a week, because some brands of coal spontaneously ignite when not at all. high temperatures: brown - at 40-60 o C, the rest - 60-70 o C. Rarely there are cases of spontaneous combustion of anthracites and semi-anthracites (such cases have not been registered in Russia).

Coal is a sedimentary rock that forms in the earth's seam. Coal is an excellent fuel. It is believed that this is the most ancient type of fuel used by our distant ancestors.

How coal is formed

For the formation of coal, a huge amount of plant matter is needed. And it is better if the plants accumulate in one place and do not have time to decompose completely. The ideal place for this is swamps. The water in them is poor in oxygen, which prevents the vital activity of bacteria.

Vegetation mass accumulates in swamps. Not having time to completely rot, it is compressed by the following soil deposits. This is how peat is obtained - the source material for coal. The next layers of soil, as it were, seal the peat in the ground. As a result, it is completely deprived of access to oxygen and water and turns into a coal seam. This process is lengthy. So, most of the modern reserves of coal were formed in the Paleozoic era, that is, more than 300 million years ago.

Characteristics and types of coal

(Brown coal)

The chemical composition of coal depends on its age.

The youngest species is brown coal. It lies at a depth of about 1 km. There is still a lot of water in it - about 43%. Contains a large amount of volatile substances. It ignites and burns well, but gives little heat.

Hard coal is a kind of "middling" in this classification. It occurs at depths up to 3 km. Since the pressure of the upper layers is greater, the water content in coal is less - about 12%, volatile substances - up to 32%, but carbon contains from 75% to 95%. It is also highly flammable, but burns better. And due to the small amount of moisture, it gives more heat.

Anthracite is an older breed. It occurs at depths of about 5 km. It has more carbon and almost no moisture. Anthracite is a solid fuel, it ignites poorly, but the specific heat of combustion is the highest - up to 7400 kcal / kg.

(Anthracite coal)

However, anthracite is not the final stage in the transformation of organic matter. When exposed to harsher conditions, coal transforms into shuntite. At higher temperatures, graphite is obtained. And when subjected to ultra-high pressure, coal turns into diamond. All these substances - from a plant to a diamond - are made of carbon, only the molecular structure is different.

In addition to the main "ingredients", the composition of coal often includes various "rocks". These are impurities that do not burn, but form slag. Contained in coal and sulfur, and its content is determined by the place of formation of coal. When burned, it reacts with oxygen and forms sulfuric acid. The less impurities in the composition of coal, the higher its grade is valued.

Coal deposit

The place of occurrence of coal is called a coal basin. Over 3.6 thousand coal basins are known in the world. Their area occupies about 15% of the earth's land area. The largest percentage of deposits of the world's coal reserves in the United States - 23%. In second place - Russia, 13%. China closes the top three leading countries - 11%. The largest coal deposits in the world are located in the USA. This is the Appalachian coal basin, whose reserves exceed 1600 billion tons.

In Russia, the largest coal basin is Kuznetsk, in the Kemerovo region. The reserves of Kuzbass amount to 640 billion tons.

The development of deposits in Yakutia (Elginskoye) and in Tyva (Elegestskoye) is promising.

Coal mining

Depending on the depth of the coal, either a closed mining method or an open one is used.

Closed, or underground mining method. For this method, mine shafts and adits are built. Mine shafts are built if the depth of coal is 45 meters or more. A horizontal tunnel leads from it - an adit.

There are 2 closed mining systems: room and pillar mining and longwall mining. The first system is less economical. It is used only in cases where the discovered layers are thick. The second system is much safer and more practical. It allows you to extract up to 80% of the rock and evenly deliver coal to the surface.

The open method is used when the coal is shallow. To begin with, an analysis of the hardness of the soil is carried out, the degree of soil weathering and the layering of the covering layer are ascertained. If the ground above the coal seams is soft, the use of bulldozers and scrapers is sufficient. If the upper layer is thick, then excavators and draglines are brought in. A thick layer of hard rock lying above the coal is blown up.

The use of coal

The area of ​​use of coal is simply huge.

Sulfur, vanadium, germanium, zinc, and lead are extracted from coal.

Coal itself is an excellent fuel.

It is used in metallurgy for iron smelting, in the production of iron, steel.

The ash obtained after burning coal is used in the production of building materials.

From coal, after its special processing, benzene and xylene are obtained, which are used in the production of varnishes, paints, solvents, and linoleum.

By liquefying coal, a first-class liquid fuel is obtained.

Coal is the raw material for producing graphite. As well as naphthalene and a number of other aromatic compounds.

As a result of the chemical processing of coal, more than 400 types of industrial products are currently obtained.

Despite the fact that alternative energy sources are being increasingly used today, coal mining is topical area industry. One of major areas the use of this type of fuel is the operation of power plants. Coal deposits are located in various countries of the world, and 50 of them are active.

World coal deposits

The largest amount of coal is mined in the United States in deposits in Kentucky and Pennsylvania, in Illinois and Alabama, in Colorado, Wyoming and Texas. It produces hard and brown coal, as well as anthracites. The second place in the extraction of these minerals is occupied by Russia.

In third place in coal production is China. The largest Chinese deposits are located in the Shanxing coal basin, in the Great Chinese Plain, Datong, Yangtze, etc. A lot of coal is also mined in Australia - in the states of Queensland and New South Wales, near the city of Newcastle. India is a major coal producer, and the deposits are located in the northeast of the country.

Hard and brown coal has been mined in the Saar and Saxony, Rhine-Westphalia and Brandenburg deposits in Germany for more than 150 years. There are three coal basins in Ukraine: Dnieper, Donetsk, Lvov-Volyn. Anthracites, gas coal and coking coal are mined here. Sufficiently large-scale coal deposits are located in Canada and Uzbekistan, Colombia and Turkey, North Korea and in Thailand, Kazakhstan and Poland, the Czech Republic and South Africa.

Coal deposits in Russia

One third of the world's coal reserves are located on the territory of the Russian Federation. The largest number of deposits is located in the eastern part of the country, in Siberia. The largest Russian coal deposits are as follows:

• Kuznetsk - a significant part of the basin lies in the Kemerovo region, where about 80% of coking and 56% of hard coal are mined;
• Kansk-Achinsk basin - 12% of brown coal is mined;
• Tunguska basin - located in part of Eastern Siberia, anthracites, brown and hard coal are mined;
• The Pechora basin is rich in coking coal;
• The Irkutsk-Cheremkhovo basin is a source of coal for Irkutsk enterprises.

Coal mining is a very promising sector of the economy today. Experts say that humanity consumes coal too intensively, so there is a threat that the world's reserves may soon be used up, but in some countries there are significant reserves of this mineral. Its consumption depends on the application, and if you reduce the consumption of coal, it will last for a longer time.