UrBC, Yekaterinburg, September 12, 2017. A new geo-steering unit VLD-1000 was recently launched at EVRAZ Raspadskaya Coal Company’s Yerunakovskaya 8 Mine, EVRAZ Holding Siberia’s press service reports.

The new unit is expected to make underground work safer and more efficient.

‘Geo-steering is a new, advanced gas-removal technology. It helps to filter methane from large-size coal beds, with increased depth and amount of gas extracted. To make sure our miners can keep up with their current coal output, all excess gas needs to be removed from the coal bed prior to start of the mining jobs. The new equipment will make the entire process much safer,’ says Raspadskaya Coal Company’s Director-General Sergey Stepanov.

The maximum capacity of a rotary type boring unit comes to between 0.25 and 2 m3 of methane per minute and up to 17 m3 per minute for a controlled-drilling well. This impressive efficiency is ensured through a geo-steering system that lets the unit know which direction to drill in and displays this information on a built-in screen. This means wells over 700 m long can be made under different angles, which, in its turn, ensures increased methane-removal output.

‘In addition to filtering excess gas, the geo-steering unit tests for tectonic abnormalities, including those that cannot get detected when drilling from the surface. This smart equipment with a 3D modeling function makes it possible to draw very detailed plans of mining operations. The unit cost some 115m RUR to buy,’ the press service says.