The Lensky coal basin is the second, after the Tunguska deposit, coal basin in terms of area and volume of resources. Geographically, it is located in the Republic of Yakutia, and also, partially, in the Krasnoyarsk Territory. Due to its characteristics, the Lensky coal basin is among the top 10 most promising coal basins in Russia. The history of coal mining in this area is rather scarce. The first data on coal in the territory of the modern basin appeared at the end of the XIX century, but the study and exploration began only in 1927. The first mines appeared only in 1930.
Geographical position
The basin area, according to various estimates, ranges from 400 to 750 thousand km 2 . The Vilyui and Aldan rivers flow on its territory, and it is located between the mouths of the Khatanga and Lena rivers. Part of the coast of the Laptev Sea is also located in the basin. The climate throughout is severe, permafrost prevails. It also turns out to be a negative factor complicating the development of the field.
The basin covers the northern and eastern parts of the Siberian platform. The main geological structural elements are the Pre-Verkhoyansk and Pre-Taimyr troughs, as well as the Vilyui syneclise.
Stock Characteristic
The balance reserves of coal in the Lensky coal basin at a depth of 600 meters are 1.8 billion tons. About a hundred formations are actively being developed, the structure of which is very diverse. But the projected amount of resources that can be produced in the Lensky coal basin is 847 billion tons. This is a fairly large reserve compared to other pools. In their composition, these are brown and sintering coals . Coal is distributed mainly on the right bank of the Lena River. Most of them are brown, but occasionally there are semi-anthracites. At present, about 150 coal seams are known, 50 of which have a thickness of more than 1 meter. Coal itself contains little ash and sulfur, which makes it a fairly high-quality fuel. Coke from this coal also has good characteristics. In terms of specific heat of combustion, the spread is quite large: from 27.9 to 33.5 MJ / kg.
Production
Mining in the Lensky coal basin is far from being conducted on the whole territory, but only in a few deposits: Ust-Marskhinsky, Kempendyaysky, Sogo-Khaisky, Kangalassky, Kildyamsky, Taymyrlyrsky, Chay-Tumusky, Ogoner-Yuryakhsky, Sangarsky, Dzhebariki-Khaysky, Extraction at many of them is currently stopped for one reason or another.
Today, development is carried out in only two mines (Dzhebariki-Khaiskaya and Sangarskaya) and three sections (Kangalassky, Harbalakhsky, Kirovsky). The capacity of each mine is about 800 thousand tons per year, and cuts - 508 thousand tons per year. In total, the entire coal basin, according to 1984, supplied 1.6 million tons, and today production is 1.5 million tons of coal per year. It is also worth noting that in the Lensky coal basin there are several gas fields, in particular, Tass-Tumyskoye.
Fire at Sangarsky mine
In 2000, an emergency occurred at the Sangarsky mine. Due to internal causes, several coal seams caught fire. Fortunately, no one was hurt, since the field had been closed for two years. But all the same, it was a rather tangible loss for the entire coal basin, because the reserves of this mine were approximately 20 million tons. After some time, a special enterprise was created to extinguish the fire, which fought with him for five years, but to no avail. By 2005, funding for this enterprise had ceased, and the fight against fire had stopped. By 2016, the fire had not yet been extinguished. There is still no news about the state of the Sangarsky mine.
Coal demand
All coal mining is currently in the hands of private mining campaigns: Yakutugol, Kamchatlestopprom, Koryakugol, Dalvostugol, Uralugol and some others.
Due to its geographical location, coal mined here is quite expensive to transport to other regions of the country. Considering that there is no local large metallurgical and energy industry near the Lensky coal basin, the demand for it is extremely small. This greatly inhibits the development of production volumes of such a promising field. But in the future, the Lensky coal basin is predicted to develop rapidly, due to its large reserves and an increase in the cost of development in other basins.