Coal mining in nineteenth century British Columbia was confined almost exclusively to the tidewater coal measures of Vancouver Island where it was expanded rapidly from 1871 to 1891. This dissertation's purposes are to describe the coal industry's rise, account for its fast growth in the seventies and eighties, and assess the coal trade's general impact upon the region's economy. The approach is thematic, focusing in turn upon coal lands, capital, management, labour, technology, markets, production, and productivity. Standard research, organization, and interpretation methods for economic history are followed, including thorough descriptive use of statistical data. Comparisons are intensive and far-reaching, resulting in a close-knit framework upon which important conclusions are based. No effort has been made, however, to offer extensive biographical information on the coal trade's leading personalities. These studies confirm the coal industry's rapid expansion, and determine that all factors of production can explain that phenomenon with a high degree of certainty, though market demand and management technique do so more readily than other agents. It is shown that management methods and styles evolved quickly, the most effective being the owner-manager type as practiced by Robert Dunsmuir, the industry's most successful proprietor. Risk capital was drawn from various sources, including mainly British direct investments, local savings, partnerships (often involving foreign investors), and ploughed-back profits. Entrepreneurs and promoters were active in attempting to develop coal properties from 1864 on, though only those highly experienced in mining and management succeeded. Chronic worker shortages, coupled with the physical problems associated with coal mining in mountainous terrain, forced coal operators to opt early for labour saving technology imported almost exclusively from Britain. The introduction of large numbers of Oriental colliers by Dunsmuir after 1870, (who were willing to work at half the wages whites would), slowed the technological advance of the industry, but not annual rates of production increases. Considerable friction between white workers and management resulted from the latter's initiatives with Oriental labour, while the owners' policy of severely restricting wage-rates caused further serious labour problems, including a high number of work stoppages. Mine safety, job security, and general working conditions also were contentious issues. B.C.'s early collieries relied heavily upon the California market which often was unsteady, but which accounted for approximately seventy-five percent of all sales during the years 1849-91. Domestic users were mainly shipping companies, light industry, and households. Much of the local market was handled at the pithead. The major coal companies streamlined their channels of distribution by opening their own sales offices in Victoria and San Francisco, and. in the case of Dunsmuir, by also building a collier fleet and a railway of his own. The coal industry had a major influence upon southern Vancouver Island's economy, but not a large impact upon the remainder of the province. No determined "attempts were made by coal proprietors or other capitalists to create secondary industries linked to coal production, though colliery owners did invest in land, transport, and retail-wholesale ventures designed either to service their mining activities or to diversify their personal holdings. Such moves occurred later-on, however, as the main thrust of their initial efforts was to establish and maintain the coal trade with California. / Arts, Faculty of / History, Department of / Graduate

Coal measures of the Late Jurassic-Early Cretaceous Kootenay Formation are complexly deformed in the southeastern Canadian Rocky Mountains. The structural style and associated features of the coal measures are in part characteristic of the ‘Foothills Family’ of structures. In addition, by virtue of the major contrast in competency between the coal seams and adjacent strata, the structural features of the coal measures display considerable variation which, to some extent, can be correlated with the regional and local structural setting., The variation in the structural features of the coal measures have a marked influence on the mineability of the coal and both directly and indirectly on coal quality. During deformation the coal seams were the loci of interstratal slip, thrust faulting and detachment during folding.. The coal seams vary markedly in thickness; in some areas coal seams have been thickened as much as an order of magnitude in response to thrust faulting, normal faulting and folding, whereas in other adjacent areas, the seams may be completely pinched-off or faulted out. Structural thickening of the coal seams has been facilitated by cataclastic flow of the finely sheared coal along a myriad of discrete shear surfaces. The mesoscopic and microscopic fabric of the coal is cataclastic with the exception of local areas of apparently high strain where the vitrain and clarain components have behaved plastically. Shearing of the coal and adjacent strata has resulted in the introduction and dissemination of formerly discrete rock partings which in turn have produced abnormally high ash contents and poor washability characteristics and has made the coal more susceptible to oxidation. Measurement of vitrinite reflectance of coal in some major shear zones suggests, by comparisipn with samples heated in the laboratory for short durations, that frictional heating during shearing may have resulted in temperatures of up to 450°C. . Adjacent to and within other shear zones there is no evidence for frictional heating. The presence or absence of frictional heating may be the result respectively of stick-slip and stable sliding conditions during shear, which in turn may be a product of variable pore pressures. In underground mines the structural features of the roof rock and the coal seams have a pronounced effect on roof stability.. In the Vicary Creek mine, located in the hanging wall of the Coleman Fault, the Number 2 seam and some of the roof rock were pervasively sheared as a result of interstratal slip during flexure of the coal measures and possibly as a result of drag from overriding thrust faults. In such areas the coal pillars have low bearing strength and the cohesion between successive beds in the immediate roof rock has been destroyed, resulting in poor roof conditions. Slickenside striae on bedding surfaces, joints in the roof strata and some extension faults which cut the seam, define a kinematic and dynamic pattern which is consistent with the regional structure. In the Balmer North, Five Panel and Six Panel mines, located in the northern part of the Fernie synclinorium, the coal measures are only mildly deformed. A cleat system is present at all sample localities but no consistent pattern exists which can be related to the overall structure or to joints in the roof and floor.. In the Balmer North mine, young, gently west dipping, shear surfaces are present throughout which, in conjunction with slickensided bedding surfaces, have promoted roof and coal rib failure along north to northwesterly trends. In the Five Panel mine roof and coal rib failure have been facilitated by steep easterly dipping fractures. The absence of a consistent joint or cleat pattern in the Balmer North, Five Panel or Six Panel mines may be the result of mechanical anisotropy of the strata or of multiple episodes of deformation. Striated structures, many of which are conical in form, are common mesoscopic elements on fracture surfaces in the deformed coal. . Such structures, although rarely reported previously in the literature, occur at many localities in the study area. The structures are planar, conical and pyramidal in form, and are characterized by striae which radiate from a common apex and 'horsetail' to form subsidiary structures on the master surface. All three types of striated structures are considered the products of dynamic, brittle shear fracture which was possibly facilitated at failure by high inter- and/or intra-particle pore pressure. / Science, Faculty of / Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences, Department of / Graduate

The Lower Cretaceous Gates and Moosebar Formations in the Northeast Coalfields of British Columbia comprise a 350-450 m thick interval of marine and non-marine, coal bearing clastic sediments. The Moosebar Formation and lowermost unit of the Gates Formation (the Torrens Member) consist of between 2 and 4 coarsening-upward marine cycles. In the northern part of the study area, non-marine sediments in the Gates Formation occur interbedded with 3 major marine tongues (the Sheriff member, Falher C and Babcock member) which pinch out towards the south. In the study area south of Duke Mountain, sediments in the Gates Formation above the Torrens Member are entirely non-marine. The coarsening-upward marine cycles in the Moosebar-lower Gates interval were deposited mainly during regressions when the shorelines prograded northwards. The cycles are comprised of up to 3 main facies interpreted as offshore, transition zone and shoreface-beach (and locally distributary channel) deposits. Thin transgressive deposits are present at the base of the Sheriff member. Lower Gates shorelines are interpreted as high energy and wave dominated. Shoreline trends for the Torrens, Sheriff and Babcock Members are approximately E-W, and approximately NW-SE for the Falher C. Non-marine deposits in the Gates Formation are interpreted as forming in lagoons, fluvial channels and overbank environments within a coastal plain setting. The channels are mainly braided river types with anastomosing or straight (non-braided) and meandering river channels also present. The rivers flowed towards the northwest, north, northeast and east with northeasterly directions most common. Up to three separate very coarse fluvial conglomerates, interpreted as proximal braided river-alluvial fan deposits are present in the south near Mount Belcourt. Overbank sediments were deposited in levee, crevasse splay, lacustrine and well to poorly drained swamp environments The upper Gates marine unit (Babcock member) contains both transgressive and regressive deposits. Three types of transgressive deposits are recognised: 1. Thick (maximum 40 m) estuary mouth |shoal retreat massif) sandstones and conglomerates preserved in linear belts approximately 0.4-2 km wide trending NW-SE and N-S. 2. A thin (maximum 90 cm) but laterally extensive marine lag. 3. Lagoon-intertidal deposits. Upper Gates regressive deposits include shelf to shallow marine sandstones overlain by estuarine subtidal channel and shoal deposits which in turn are overlain locally by tidal flat and coastal plain deposits with thin coal seams. Upper Gates shorelines appear to be strongly tidally influenced. Thick (maximum 10 m), laterally extensive coal seams occur in the lower part of the Gates Formation. Coal seams in the upper Gates are thin (generally <1.0 m). With the exception of few very thin seams, the Gates coals appear to be entirely autochthonous and to have accumulated as peat in swamps in a coastal plain depositional setting. Some of the coals in the lower Gates were deposited in swamps which extended inland for at least 75 km from the shoreline. The maximum coal development in the Gates Formation (28 m total coal and 6 seams >1.5 m thick) occurs in the Foothills south of Kinuseo Creek, near the boundary between transitional marine and non-marine facies belts. Cross-sections based on closely spaced borehole and outcrop sections illustrate the occurrence and distribution of coal seams in the Duke, Honeymoon, Babcock, Frame and McConkey Pits. Thinning and pinchout of coal seams occurs adjacent to fluvial channel and splay deposits and near the landward pinchout of the Sheriff member. Draping of coal seams over fluvial channel deposits causes rapid variations in interseam thickness which may lead to correlation problems in the early stages of exploration and affect the potential mineability of coal seams. The main detrital components in the Gates sandstones are quartz and chert with siliceous rock fragments, carbonate rock fragments, clastic sedimentary and metasedimentary rock fragments, igneous rock fragments and feldspar present in lesser amounts. Mesozoic to Cambrian sedimentary rocks of the Rocky Mountain Front and Main Ranges are interpreted as the principal source of the detrital components. / Science, Faculty of / Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences, Department of / Graduate

The purpose of this diploma thesis is to estimate objectivised value of company Sokolovská uhelná, právní nástupce, a.s. on valuation date 31 December 2011. Thesis starts with introduction and overview of basic information about the company. Key part, strategic analysis, deals with analysis of sectors in which company operates, defines relevant markets, indentifies company's position on the market, forecasts prices of commodities and at the end presents forecasts of sales. In part financial analysis, complex financial health is verified. In Part generators of value and financial plan prediction of financial statements is forecasted. On these bases, discounted free cash flow valuation method is used to determine the value of company.

O presente estudo investiga a possibilidade do uso da perfilagem geofísica de Gama Natural e Resistividade na discriminação de estratos carbonosos, em relação a outras litologias presentes em quatro depósitos de carvão localizados no Rio Grande do Sul (áreas B3, CALOMBO, CERRO e SEIVAL). Uma vez observada a possibilidade de identificação dos estratos carbonosos com estes dois perfis geofísicos apenas, fez-se uma verificação da acuracidade na determinação das espessuras das camadas de carvão e também um exame da existência de correlação entre os registros geofísicos e parâmetros de qualidade do carvão (especificamente cinzas, enxofre e voláteis). Neste contexto, as espessuras das camadas de carvão foram comparadas com as espessuras observadas em testemunhos de sondagem, sendo que o reconhecimento das assinaturas das camadas pode ser feito com boa acuracidade para todos os depósitos, exceto no depósito do Cerro, onde o sinal do carvão confunde-se arenitos, inviabilizando muitas vezes a discriminação. Os parâmetros de qualidade do carvão foram determinados por meio de análise laboratorial, para posterior comparação com as leituras de perfilagem. Os resultados mostraram uma boa correlação entre a emissão de radiação gama natural em camadas de carvão e o teor de cinzas para os depósitos do CALOMBO e CERRO, mas uma correlação apenas razoável para os depósitos de B3 e SEIVAL. Além disso, os resultados indicaram que não há correlação entre teor de enxofre ou voláteis e os registros geofísicos. Vale ressaltar a importância deste tipo de avaliação, especialmente quanto às espessuras de camadas de carvão no planejamento de mina de curto prazo, onde não é exequível a sondagem com recuperação de testemunhos em bancadas de lavra simultaneamente ao processo extração de carvão, em função da demora da atividade de sondagem. / This study investigates the possibility of using geophysical logging of natural gamma and resistivity in the identification of carbonaceous strata in relation to other lithologies present in four coal deposits located in Rio Grande do Sul (areas B3,CALOMBO, CERRO and SEIVAL). Once observed, the possibility of identifying carbonaceous strata with these two geophysical logs, the degree of accuracy in the determination of the thicknesses of the coal seams and the existence of correlation between the geophysical logs and coal quality parameters (specifically ash, sulfur and volatile) were determined. In this context, the thicknesses of the coal seams were compared with the thickness of the core samples recovered in the boreholes and the result showed that the recognition of the coal seam signatures can be obtained with good accuracy for all deposits except the CERRO deposit, where the coal seam signature can be confused for that of sandstone which often precludes identification. The coal quality parameters were determined by laboratory analysis and later compared with the readings from geophysical logging. The results showed good correlation between natural gamma radiation emitted by the coal seams and the ash content in the CALOMBO and CERRO deposits but weak correlation in the B3 and SEIVAL deposits. Furthermore, the results showed no correlation between sulfur or volatile and the geophysical data. It is worth mentioning, the importance of this type of evaluation, especially in regards to the thickness of coal seams in short term mine planning, where it is not possible to recover core samples during the coal extraction process as a result of excessive time delay with respect to core sample recovery in boreholes.

Masters of Science / This study is focused on the Coal Bed Methane resources of Botswana with specific reference to the Central Kalahari basin where prospect license blocks forming the focus of this study are located. The aim of this study is to evaluate the fracture network in the coal seams and the fracture systems in the surrounding coal bearing sedimentary sequences and their contribution to dynamic flow. Coal bed methane sources are dual-porosity media documented on the natural fracture network, seen as micropores (matrix/natural fractures) and macropores (cleat). The coals of this region belong to the Ecca Group’s Morupule Fm (Permian) (70 m), focus of this study and have been preserved in the extensive Karoo basin within the Southern Africa region. Fractures can easily be identified in Acoustic Televiewer logs (ATV) and their orientation and structural character interpreted by rose plots, tadpoles and stick dip plots. In-situ stress fields have been determined from breakout structural evaluation and maintains a general E-W dip direction and N-S strike, thus most fractures are orientated optimally with inferred in-situ stress and enhancing flow potential in pore systems. A qualitative (MID plots & M-N cross-plots) and quantitative description of the fracture system is fundamental to the petrophysical evaluation, and involves the estimation of fracture parameters (fracture porosity, resistivity fracture index and both horizontal and vertical fracture indices).

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / Coal fly ash has been studied extensively to understand the environmental impacts associated with its disposal, management and reuse. Although several beneficiation processes have been proposed, there has been little or no emphasis on the environmental safety of such processes, products and wastes. Elemental analysis has revealed that toxic elements and radionuclides are present in coal fly ash. Rare earth elements (REE) such as La, Ce and Y are also present in significant amounts in coal fly ash. The aims of this study were to determine the total elemental composition of coal fly ash using different analytical techniques; to validate the application potentials of fly ash beneficiation processes in terms of their environmental safety; and to valorise coal fly ash with a view of recovering REE either by concentrating or leaching the REE in the coal fly ash, products or waste from the beneficiation processes. The beneficiation processes studied were treatment of acid mine drainage (AMD) with fly ash; and the synthesis of geopolymer from fly ash. The fresh fly ash sample used in this study was collected directly from the hoppers at Matla power station and the AMD sample was collected from Carletonville goldmine. A total of 54 major, trace and REE were accurately determined in the ash using different analytical techniques. It was shown that the elemental content of Matla fly ash was of the same order as the SRM NIST coal fly ash 1633b. The comparative study of the four analytical techniques established that ENAA can accurately determine the major, minor and trace elements; that XRF is best suited for the determination of the major and minor elements, whilst the LA ICP-MS is reliable for trace elements determination. The solid residue (AMD/FA) resulting from the AMD interaction with fly ash was characterized with fly ash and the results compared. The results revealed that the amounts of La (141.09 ± 3.85 mg/kg), Ce (27.45 ± 2.04 mg/kg), and Nd (63.73 ± 0.05 mg/kg) in AMD/FA residue was considerably higher than their average abundance in the earth crust that varies from 66 mg/kg in Ce and 40 mg/kg in Nd to 35 mg/kg in La. The results also showed that the AMD/FA residue contained As (11.39 ± 1.21 mg/kg), Cd (3.77 ± 0.02 mg/kg), Cr (72.43 ± 1.27 mg/kg), Hg (10.50 ± 0.85 mg/kg), Ni (124.15 ± 1.6 mg/kg) and Pb (22.46 ± 1.43 mg/kg) which are potentially harmful if leached in to the environment in excessive amounts.

No description available.

Bibliography: pages 119-126. / Graphite Furnace Atomic Absorption Spectrometry (GFAAS) was used for the determination of cadmium and beryllium in coal and fly ash slurries. Sample preparation involved grinding the sample to a fine powder and slurrying it in a suitable solvent. Stable slurries were maintained by magnetic stirring during sampling. Pyrolytically coated graphite tubes were used for cadmium determinations, while beryllium was determined with platform atomisation. Ammonium dihydrogen orthophosphate and magnesium nitrate matrix modifiers were used for cadmium and beryllium determinations respectively. Calibration graphs constructed with aqueous standards containing the appropriate matrix modifier were rectilinear to at least 100 pg cadmium and 45 pg beryllium. Results were calculated with integrated peak area measurements. The detection limits were 2.9 pg for cadmium and 0.7pg for beryllium. Beryllium determinations were performed with semi-automatic sample introduction. The novel semi-automatic sampling unit utilised magnetic stirring for· the maintenance of stable slurries and operated with the standard Perkin-Elmer AS-40 autosampler. The principles of this unit were extended to the development of a fully automatic auto-sampling unit. The design and operation of both units are described. The accuracy of the methods was evaluated by analysing standard reference materials and in some cases, comparisons with acid digestion procedures. Data are presented for the analysis of South African coal and fly ash samples. The slurry methods had acceptable accuracy and precision. In comparison with the conventional acid digestion procedures using high pressure bombs, a time-saving advantage was realised.

MESC / Department of Mining and Environmental Geology