Kloppersbos Explosibility Laboratory Upgrade

Mapping abandoned, inaccessible bord and pillar workings comes down to two options: borehole deployed laser or sonar scanning, or sensors carried in by unmanned vehicles. Drone mounted laser scanning for air filled voids and sonar carried by small submersibles for flooded workings were judged the most promising, but intrinsic safety, deployment and the risk of losing equipment still favour borehole methods for occasional use.

Sub-seams within the No 2 Seam were characterised at a single test site using lithology, seam thickness, proximate analysis, petrography and geophysical logs, and a paleoenvironmental model was built from them. Wireline logs separated coal from interburden but could not resolve the individual zones, because the physical differences are too subtle. Better sedimentological models gave better reserve and resource estimates.