Coal Subsurface Mapping for Selective Mining

There is a need for a reliable coal seam sensing system to provide selective mining capabilities for open-cut coal mining operations. This paper presents the preliminary results of a GPR-based sensing system developed for this purpose. The system will be used to scan open-cut sites to generate digital surfaces representative of the thickness of the coal seam. The digital surfaces will be uploaded to in-cab guidance systems to provide operators with information to enable selective mining. The system was evaluated at an open-cut mine site where a digital surface was generated from the GPR data collected at the site. Results from drilling holes to validate the system showed that the top layer thickness estimates were within 5% of the measured layer thickness at four of the five test locations.