PPI cited Mr Syed Qaim Ali Shah CM who also holds the portfolio of Coal & Energy Development as saying that after the Thar, the coal reserves of approximately 1.785 billion tonne have been discovered in Badin district.
In his written answer to the question of Heer Soho, lady MPA of MQM, during the question hour of Sindh assembly’s budget session on Thursday, Mr Shah told that the exploration of coal reserves was carried out by Geological Survey of Pakistan in collaboration with United States Geological Survey in 1992 near Khorwah, where two coal beds having thickness of 0.2 meter and 0.35 meter were encountered. In another well two coal beds of 0.9 meter and 0.30 meter were encountered.
Chief Minister told further that in 2006 Geological Survey of Pakistan drilled few holes and confirmed the reserves of coal. M/s Northeast Coalfields Geological Survey Bureaus drilled 22 bore holes over an area of 510 kilometers in vicinity of Golarchi and confirmed presence of coal.
On another question by same member, Chief Minister his reply said that China Clay is found in Nagarparkar of Tharparkar district over an area of 98 kilometers of which 65 kilometers to 70 kilometer have been granted to various parties. Around 20 mills of washing the China Clay are established in the area.
He told that 40 mining lease and permits have been granted to different parties. The applications for lease and permit are received along with a fee of PKR 10, 000 per and after approval PKR 20 per acre per year are charged while PKR 10, 000 per are charged as security deposit and PKR 20, 000 per as demarcation fee. Further PKR 12 per tonnne are charged as royalty.
Mr Shah said that government of Sindh is working on four projects of processing facilities for producing coal gas by underground gasification and also producing electricity from coal gas. All the projects would be funded by federal government.
To a question by Mr Muhammad Adil Khan, the Chief Minister informed the house that 225 million tonne and 076 million tonne marble was mined from Thatta district during the year 2008 and 2009 respectively. The revenue so generated was PKR 584, 935 per and PKR 593, 300 per respectively. The royalty is collected by the contractor at the rate of PKR 20 per tonne.
On Syeda Marvi Rashdi’s question, Mr Shah said that Thar Coal and Energy Board has offered allocation of different blocks of Thar coalfield for open cast mining to different companies. The underground coal gasification project by Dr Samar Mubarakmand has successfully conducted test burn on December 11th 2011 and syngas is being produced.
Similarly, for the underground coal gasification, M/s Couger Energy of UK has been conducting desk studies since 2009 for development of coal gas and establishment of power plant of 400 MW. The company has not provided target date of generation of gas.
Source - Pakistan Press International
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