It is heart breaking to see that majority of Pakistanis and Pak related media have no focus on the BIGGEST issue for Pak’s crisis, and instead we are going crazy for religion and Middle Eastern problems. Is it because our priorities are messed up? or we have no idea where we are and where the rest of the world is?
This is the time Hamid Mirs should be reporting from Thar, urging Pakistanis to focus on developing this area. Sadly, he is reporting from gaza, listening to the azans.
This is truly an example of chirag talay undhera.
Thar coal for power generation
By Shamim-Urrahman
Friday, 23 Jan, 2009 | 05:34 PM PST |
KARACHI, Jan 27, 1994: The government is examining the possibility of mining part of 124 billion tons of proven high grade coal deposits in the 5,000 square km area in the Diplo-Islamkot area in Thar Desert for power generation, said a highly placed official.
The initial estimates are based on limited drilling of 3,290 sq km area in open spaced drill holes located 15 to 40 km apart after investigations conducted by the Pakistan Geological Survey and its American counterpart, he said. According to some experts the coal deposits could be in the range of several hundred billion tons and spread over about 10,000 sq km.
According to the initial study conducted by experts 10,000 MW of electricity could be generated for 25 years with just one billion tons as 4 million tons of coal is estimated to be consumed by a power plant of 1,000 MW capacity.
According to the initial findings, the deposits are at the very shallow depth of 120 to 250 metres making open pit mining (as against expensive risky shaft and incline method) possible.
According to experts, the quality at less than 1.5 percent of sulphur, ash content between 4 to 10 percent and calorific value between 9,300 and 10,700 BTU (heat energy value) makes the deposit ideal for power generation.
By comparison, the expert said, Lakhra Coal is of only 5,000 BTU value and has sulphur content of 6 per cent.
According to the initial findings by an expert, mining in dense area comprising 30 sq km could help support the construction of a 5,000 MW power plant , (making Kalabagh irrelevant) on half of the reserves in 15 sq km.
Repayment of funds procured for mining and setting up the plant could be repaid through exporting: part of the 500 million tons of coal recovered from the remaining 15 km, said the expert.
The coal extracted from Thar would also help in reducing the import bill of Pakistan Steel, which spent $24 million on freight for importing 2 million tons of coal.
As mining of Thar coal and setting up of a power plant would need huge finances, which the government cannot generate on its own, the funding aspect on better terms would be the first requisite for any such project to get off. Some circles are opposed to involving foreigners in equity holdings in such key sectors but more pragmatic groups support their involvement in the initial stage to exploit the natural resources.
http://dawn.net/wps/wcm/connect/Dawn Content Library/dawn/news/business/thar-coal-for-power-generation–il