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The surface miners make the job of digging coal out of the ground relatively simple. A single operator sitting in an air-conditioned cabin operates the machine by driving it in clean arcs around the mine floor. A rotary digger in the floor of the surface miner drills its way through the soil disturbing the coal seam and leaving loose coal in its wake. (Photos & Text by Raghuvir Srinivasan)
- Source: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/
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Picture shows a hydraulic loader scooping up coal and depositing it into a dumper at the Bharatpur mine. (Photos & Text by Raghuvir Srinivasan)
- Source: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/
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Overburden is the soil or earth below which the coal seams lie. This soil has to be removed and dumped aside before the coal can be reached. (Photos & Text by Raghuvir Srinivasan)
- Source: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/
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Once the overburden is removed a crater is formed and as the mine continues to remove the exposed coal, the crater becomes wider and deeper. (Photos & Text by Raghuvir Srinivasan)
- Source: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/
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Mining is a non-stop 24 hours, 7-days-a-week, 365-days-a-year activity. The dumpers huff and puff their way out the mine to the yard where the coal is dumped for storage and eventually transported to customers.(Photos & Text by Raghuvir Srinivasan)
- Source: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/
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About 40 rakes of coal, each of 4000 tonnes capacity, are moved out of this mine daily.(Photos & Text by Raghuvir Srinivasan)
- Source: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/
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The Bharatpur mine produces 7.5 million tonnes of coal a year. Production is expected to double to over 17 million tonnes in the current fiscal. (Photos & Text by Raghuvir Srinivasan)
- Source: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/
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Mahanadi Coalfields plans to raise output to 20 million tonnes in the next five years from the Bharatpur mine. (Photos & Text by Raghuvir Srinivasan)
- Source: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/
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The coal seams of Bharatpur mine. (Photos & Text by Raghuvir Srinivasan)
- Source: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/
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Though not as mechanised as mines in the developed world, Coal India’s mines do deploy heavy machinery to the extent possible. Picture shows a drag line machine imported from Ukraine 27 years ago. The machine has a 90 metre boom (arm) that can reach to the depths of the crater from the top and scoop out 20 cu.m. of coal or earth.
(Photos & Text by Raghuvir Srinivasan)
- Source: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/
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