Properties and Reserves of Lignite in the Aydin-Sahinali Field, Turkey

Abstract

This study focuses on some lignite properties and calculation of lignite reserves with two classical (isopach and polygon) methods in the Aydin-Sahinali field, Turkey, which is located in the western Turkey. This field has been mined by a private coal company since 1960 by open-cast and mainly underground mining methods. The producing lignites are consumed in domestic heating and industrial factories around Aydin. The metamorphic rocks of Palaezoic age form the basement of the coal field. The lignite-bearing unit of Miocene age, from bottom to the top, consists mainly of pebblestone, lignite and clayey lignite, siltstone with sandstone lenses, white colored claystone, clayey limestone and silisified limestone lenses. This unit in the lignite field was unconformably overlain by Pliocene unconsolidated sands and gravels. Three hundred seventy-three borehole data have been evaluated, and this study shows that a relatively thick and lateral extensive lignite seam has a mineable thickness of 1.6–14.4 m. The core samples from boreholes in panels in the lignite field indicate that the coal seam, on an as-received basis, contains high moisture contents (17.95–23.45%, average), high ash yields (16.30–26.03%, average), relatively high net calorific values (3,281–3,854 kcal/kg, average), and low total sulfur contents (1.00–1.22%, average). The remaining lignite potential in the Aydin-Sahinali lignite field was calculated as a 4.7 Mt of measured and a 2.9 Mt of mineable lignite-reserves.