Mine closure plan and policy for open cast coal mine of raniganj coalfield, India

Literally mine closure is being practiced in an aim to explore the time of mineral reserve exhaustion and to manage the environment adjacent to the mining project in a sustainable manner since birth. Mine closure is to be planned at the time of commencement of any project. But in India most of the mines have not adequate mine closure plans from the beginning. Mine closure is taken into account by the mining authority at the time of abandonment of mining activity. Therefore, the benefits a mining project should get, that will not happened due to lack of closure plan from the commencement period. Three opencast mines have been selected for this study namely Sonepur Bazari, Dalurband Phase II and Shibpur OCP. 14 mine closure parameters have been used to assess the adequate closure planning of these three opencast mines of Raniganj coalfields. The analysis shows that Sonepur Bazari and Shibpur OCP have proper mine closure plan by and large. On the other hand, Dalurband Phase II has not any kind of closure plan yet till now (Eastern Coalfields Limited, 2016). Main aim of this study is to assess the open cast project in a manner whether the mine has any effective closure plan or not? or to find out the relationship between mine closure and coal production.