The Thar coalfield is located in Thar Desert

Thar Desert

The Thar Desert |Punjab]] province. The Cholistan Desert adjoins the Thar desert spreading into Pakistani Punjab province.-Location and description:...

, Tharparkar District

Tharparkar District

Tharparkar District is one of twenty three districts of Sindh province in Pakistan. It is headquarters is at Mithi. It has the lowest Human Development Index of all districts in Sindh.-Demography:...

 of Sindh

Sindh

Sindh historically referred to as Ba'ab-ul-Islam , is one of the four provinces of Pakistan and historically is home to the Sindhi people. It is also locally known as the "Mehran". Though Muslims form the largest religious group in Sindh, a good number of Christians, Zoroastrians and Hindus can...

 province in Pakistan

Pakistan

Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...

. The deposits - 134th largest coal reserves in the world, were discovered in 1991 by Geological Survey of Pakistan

Geological Survey of Pakistan

The Geological Survey of Pakistan is Pakistan's central engineering agency in charge of mapping and surveying. It was established in 1947 in Quetta, Balochistan, is one of the research institutes of Pakistan. It is the organizational successor to the UK Ordnance Survey in that part of the world...

(GSP) and the United State Agency for International Development.

Pakistan has emerged as one of the leading country - seventh in the list of top 20 countries of the world after the discovery of huge lignite coal resources in Sindh. The economic coal deposits of Pakistan are restricted to Paleocene and Eocene rock sequences. It is one of the world’s largest lignite deposits discovered by GSP in 90’s, spread over more than 9,000 sq. km. comprise around 175 billion tonnes sufficient to meet country’s fuel requirements for centuries.

Location

The Thar coalfield is approximately located between Latitudes 24º15’N and 25º45’N and Longitudes 69º 45’E and 70º 45’E in the southern part of Sindh Province in the Survey of Pakistan topo-sheet Nos. 40 L/2,5 and 6. Based on available infrastructure and favourable geology, the Geological Survey of Pakistan selected four blocks near Islamkot for exploration and assessment of coal resources. The blocks with names, area and coordinates are given in Table-1:¬

S.No.	Name/Blocks	Area	Coordinates
		(Sq.km)	Latitude	Longitude
1	Sinhar Vikian Varvai, Block-I	122.00	24º 35’N to 24º 44’N	70º 12’E to 70º 18’E
2	Singharo Bhitro, Block-II	55.00	24º 44’N to 24º 51’N	70º 15’E to 70º 25’E
3	Saleh Jo Tar, Block – III	99.50	24º 49’N to 24º 58’N	70º 12’E to 70º 18’E
4	Sonalba, Block – IV	82.50	24º 41’N to 24º 48’N	70º 12’E to 70º 20’E

The area is accessible by a 410 kilometers metalled road form Karachi up to Islamkot via Hyderabad-Mirpur Khas-Naukot and Thatta-Badin-Mithi-Islamkot. A road network connecting all the major towns with Thar Coalfield have been developed. The rail link from Hyderabad is up to Naukot, which is about 100 kilometers from Islamkot.

Relief, Topography and Climate

Thar coalfield is a part of the Thar Desert of Pakistan and is the 9th largest desert of the world. It is bounded in the north, east and south by India, in the west by flood plains of the Indus River. The terrain is sandy and rough with sand dunes forming the topography. The relief in the area varies between near sea level to more than 150 meters AMSL.

The climate is essentially that of an aid to semi arid region with scorching hot summers and relatively cold winters. It is one of the most densely populated deserts of the world with over 91 thousand inhabitants. The livelihood of the population is dependent on the agriculture and livestock.

Water

The area is a part of the desert where precipitation is very little with a high rate of evaporation. As such, limited water resources are of great significance.

A. SURFACE WATER
-The water is scanty and found in a few small “tarais” and artificially dug depressions where rain water collects. These depressions generally consist of silty clay and caliche material.

B. GROUNDWATER
-The hydro geological studies and drill hole geology shows the presence of three possible aquifer zones at varying depths: (i) above the coal zone (ii) within the coal zone and (iii) below the coal zone.

Drilling data has indicated three aquifers (water-bearing Zones) at an average depth of 50 m, 120 m and more than 200 meters:

• One aquifer above the coal zone: Ranges between 52.70 and 93.27 meters depth.
• Second aquifer with the coal zone at 120 meters depth: Varying thickness up to 68.74 meters.
• Third aquifer below the coal zone at 200 metes depth: Varying thickness up to 47 meters.
• Water quality is brackish to saline.

Geology

The Thar coalfield area is covered by dune sand that extends to an average depth of over 80 meters and rests upon a structural platform in the eastern part of the desert. The generalized stratigraphic sequence in the Thar coalfield area is shown in table. It comprises Basement Complex, coal bearing Bara Formation, alluvial deposits and dune sand.

Coal

The coal beds of variable thickness ranging from 0.20 – 22.81 meters are developed. The maximum number of coal seams found in some of the drill holes is 20. The cumulative thickness of the coal beds range from 0.2 to 36 meters. Claystone invariabley forms the roof and the floor rock of the coal beds. The coal is brownish black, black and grayish black in colour. It is poorly to well cleared and compact. The quality of coal is better where percentage of clay is nominal.

Reserves

As a result of wide spread drilling over an area of 9000 km2, a total of 175 billion tons of coal resource potential has been assessed. Detailed evaluation on four blocks has following results.

S.No.	Name/Blocks	Area	Reserves (Million Tonnes)
		(Sq.km)	Measured	Indicated	Inferred	Total
1	Sinhar Vikian Varvai, Block-I	122.00	620	1,918	1,028	3,566
2	Singharo Bhitro, Block-II	55.00	640	944	-	1,584
3	Saleh Jo Tar, Block – III	99.50	413	1,337	258	2,008
4	Sonalba, Block – IV	82.50	684	1,711	76	2,471
	Total:	358.5	2,357	5,910	1,362	9,629

The overburden consists of three kinds of material; dune sand, alluvium and sedimentary sequence. The total overburden is around 150 to 230 meters. The roof and the floor rocks are claystone and loose sandstone beds.