Anisotropy of the Main Lignite Parameters Variability of Bełchatów Area

Abstract

Belchatow lignite deposit is located in the central part of Poland in the tectonic Kleszczow graben. It is divided into several parts, which aremining fields: Kamiensk area (eastern part of the deposit), Belchatow area (central part of the deposit) and Szczercow area (western part of the deposit). The subject of this study was the Belchatow area. The main issue of the investigations was the dependence of local, regional and global, horizontal variability of selected lignite qualitative parameters (moisture, ash content, calorific value and sulfur content in the as received state) is a function of viewing direction. There was applied the geostatistical analysis of the lignite variability parameters with use of semivariograms.The researches which were conducted at different scales of observation: in the locale scale - in small field size 8 x 8 m called experimental area (local analysis), in larger homogeneous separated parts of the Belchatow area (regional analysis) and in the whole Belchatow area scale (general analysis). The results proved the visible anisotropy of variability mine lignite parametres. Anisotropy structure observed in regional and global scale is connected with tectonic structure of the Belchatow Graben. The detailed studies show the variated level of anisotropy observed in different areas of Belchatow field.However, no dependence of the relative level of ash and total sulfur content anisotropy on the environment of sedimentation of the main coal deposit in different parts of the Belhchatow field has been observed. Both parameters characterize with strong or medium anisotropy level in examined fields. Moreover, anisotropy is also visible in the local scale. Conducted researches confirmed the thesis that zonal anisotropy is prevalent kind of anisotropy in the regional scale. In the range of the whole deposit the total sulfur content showed zonal anisotropy, whereas the ash content revealed geometric anisotropy.