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secl paste filling project

What Is the SECL Paste-Filling Project?

SECL (South Eastern Coalfields Ltd), a subsidiary of Coal India Limited, has started a major paste fill technology project in its Singhali underground mine (Korba area, Chhattisgarh).

The project is backed by a ₹7,040 crore agreement with TMC Mineral Resources.

It’s designed to run for 25 years, with an expected coal production of ~8.4 million tonnes over that period.

How Paste-Fill Technology Works (in This Project)

Mining First, Filling Later

SECL extracts coal from underground using its usual methods.

After extraction, instead of leaving the voids (empty spaces) underground, these are filled (“backfilled”) with a dense paste.

What’s in the Paste

The paste is made of a mix:

Fly ash (a waste product from coal power plants)

Crushed overburden from opencast mines

Cement, water, and binding chemicals

Why This Is Beneficial

Prevents land subsidence: By filling voids, the risk of surface collapse (sinking ground) is reduced.

Structural stability: Helps maintain the integrity of the underground mine.

Environmentally sustainable: Uses industrial waste (fly ash), which is a big plus for recycling waste and reducing environmental impact.

No surface damage: Because you are not caving the mine, surface infrastructure (roads, buildings, electricity lines) doesn’t get disturbed.

Why SECL Chose This for Singhali Mine

The Singhali mine (in SECL’s Korba area) is under a densely populated region — there are villages, electricity lines, and a PWD road above it.

Traditional mining methods (like caving) would be risky here, due to the structures on the surface. Paste-filling allows mining without disturbing these surface assets.

It’s a first for Coal India’s PSUs, which means SECL is pioneering this kind of “green” mining in the public coal sector.