Characteristics of Spontaneous Combustion of Anthracite in Vietnamese Coal Mines

Abstract

Major Vietnamese coal fields locate in several provinces of northern part of Vietnam in which Quang Ninh province produces the mass part of coal in Vietnam from both open pit and underground mines. Most of those coal mines produce anthracite. In Vietnam the demand for coal is rapidly increasing in recent years at a rate around 15% per year, which is more than double of economic growth rate and resulted into increase of underground production ratio up to nearly 55%. Annual coal production in 2015 was 37.75 million tons of which 20.1 million tons were produced from underground coal mines. Recently, Vietnam National Coal and Mineral Industry Group (VINACOMIN) has announced twelve coal mine fires at four underground coal mines which have been considered as coal spontaneous combustion at Hong Thai, No. 91 Enterprise, Khanh Hoa and Phan Me coal mines. Former three coal mines all produce anthracite and locate in the west part of Quang Ninh Coal Basin. Phan Me Coal Mine produces sub-bituminous and locates in Thai Nguyen Coal Basin. At the east part of Quang Ninh Coal Basin, no any outbreak of spontaneous combustion has been reported up to date. The locations of these Coal Basins are shown in Fig. 12.