Gujarat Mineral Development Corporation (GMDC) has invited bids to award turnkey mining contracts for its Surkha (North) lignite mine in Bhavnagar with a target to augment production of lignite.
Besides, the company has also decided to set up a lignite washery at the Surkha mine to remove pyritic materials from raw lignite.
Lignite, commonly regarded as brown coal, is yellow to dark brown in colour and is one of the lowest grades of coal. The present capacity of the Surkha mine is 3 million tonnes (mnt) per annum.
The company produced 8.5 mnt of lignite in FY’22 and plans to boost production by 1.5 mnt to 10 mnt in FY’23.
Tender specification
The Request for Proposal (RFP) for mining at Surkha includes two packages with a tenure of six years. The work order involves overburden/interburden removal, excavation of lignite from the mine face and transporting and unloading of raw lignite amongst others.
The company intends to extract more than 20 mnt of lignite under the project. The last date of bid submission is 5 September, 2022.
In case of RFP for setting up of beneficiation plant, the tender requires design, engineering, manufacture, supply, installation, commissioning of modular lignite washery along with suitable crusher to beneficiate 1.5 mnt of lignite annually.
The product parameter post-beneficiation should entail reduction in pyritic sulphur from 3.55% to 1.95%, enhancement in GCV from 3,686 kCal/kg to 4310 kCal/kg and a total yield of 62.5%. The last date of bid submission is 9 September.
Apart from Surkha (N), GMDC is operating its lignite mines at Panandhro, Mata-No-Madh and Umarsar in Kutch district, at Rajpardi in Bharuch district, and at Tadkeshwar in Surat district, all of which are based out of Gujarat.
Earlier this year, the company had secured permission from the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests to mine up to a depth of 135 metres from its earlier approved depth of 94 metres from the lignite mines in Tadkeshwar.
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