From BASIL BEAMISH
Tony Weighell comments that ‘once more gas is set to drive miners out
of the mines’ (‘Making money mining gas’, 3 October). In Australia gas drainage
is seen as a complementary process enabling access to coal reserves which
would otherwise be unworkable, thus ensuring the continued prospect of
jobs in underground coal mining. This aspect is most important in the Bowen
Basin of Queensland where the natural gas-in-place in coal seams is estimated
at 178 trillion cubic feet (5035 billion cubic metres). This is a major
gas resource by world standards and an aggressive exploration programme
of vertical well degasification is in progress in both the Bowen and Sydney
Basins. Some of the mine operators are also practising degasification using
directional in-seam drilling to depths ranging from 250 to 700 metres.
Basil Beamish James Cook University of North Queensland Australia
