Geostatistical coal quality control in longwall mining

The coal quality is an important aspect of coal mine planning. This paper presents a case study in which an underground coal mine is faced with severe penalty cost because it does not consider in situ coal quality control at all. To help short term planning of the coal production the mean calorific values of the blocks inside the production panels are estimated by kriging. The estimated calorific values are compared with those obtained from actual production. The ratio of the calorific values of actual production to estimated values is found to be 0.73 in average due to adverse effect of dilution on the quality of run-of-mine coal. This study reveals the importance of geostatistical block modelling in short term mine planning.