As Pakistan gears up to start exploiting what is claimed to be the world's third-largest coal deposit, buried in the Thar desert, it has approached Coal India, the world's largest coal miner, for assistance.
As Pakistan gears up to start exploiting what is claimed to be the world’s third-largest coal deposit, buried in the Thar desert, it has approached Coal India, the world’s largest coal miner, for assistance.
Sindh Engro Coal Mining Co, a joint venture between Pakistan’s Sindh government and Engro Corp, which has been given Pakistan’s largest lignite deposit, has started discussions with Coal India’s subsidiary Central Mine Planning and Design Institute (CMPDIL) to share expertise on how to effectively and economically mine a vast but difficult lignite deposit, according to sources privy to the development.
The mine is spread over 95 sq km and holds reserves of 2 billion tonne.
CMPDIL, the technical arm of Coal India, is currently busy selecting private partners for Coal India to jointly develop domestic mines, as reported by dna earlier.
Long overlooked by global energy experts, Pakistan in 1992 discovered that it is sitting on a reserve of 200 billion tonne of coal, close to India’s 276 billion tonne.
But despite having such enviable reserves, it has not been able to exploit the coal so far.
As Thar coal is not suitable for transportation, Pakistan is now looking at mouth-of-mine applications like coal gasification or coal-to-liquid for which it needs outside expertise, officials of CMPDIL said.
But why would Pakistan want India’s help in exploiting its lignite deposits, given the not-so-warm and often-strained relations between the two countries?
Well, the nature of the lignite deposit, as admitted by Pakistan’s experts, is similar to the lignite found in Rajasthan across the border, which has a reserve of more than 1 billion tonne.
Pakistan also needs to hurry as it is faced with acute power shortage, generating just 8,500 megawatt (mw) of electricity against a demand of 13,000 mw.
With no new major gas finds in recent past, Pakistan needs to develop coal-based power plants.
In fact, Sindh Engro had also got in touch with companies like Tata Power and Bharat Heavy Electricals for technology transfers, as reported in Pakistan media.
Sindh Engro initially plans to produce 600 mw electricity, to be completed in four years.
Opportunities for Indian companies, from Coal India to power sector companies are huge as Sindh government intends to develop 10 such blocks in Thar with an aim to produce 20,000 mw of electricity by 2030.
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