Reduced world petroleum prices have lowered the profitability of coal. It is necessary to reduce the costs of developing this resource in order to maintain a profit margin. Some of these cost reductions can be realized through an integrated resource evaluation program that is designed to collect all the data necessary for mine planning and permitting. This approach requires a knowledge of the engineering, geologic, and environmental needs of the project as well as the use of a sophisticated system of data collection and management. An approach such as this was used to evaluate a prospect in South Texas. The results of the project demonstrated that this approach requires more personnel in the field while the data is being collected than the traditional approaches. Significant reductions in cost are achieved by reduced mobilization, by reduced numbers of continous core and monitoring wells, and by maximizing the use of geophysical logs and logging units.
Authors:Gowan, S. W., 1983
Fourth International Coal Exploration Symposium, Sydney, Australia
Keywords:
Coal, lignite, energy resource exploration, data collection, data management, engineering, environmental, geology, field geologist, geophysical logging, exploration program design