Comprehensive Evaluation of the Mining Geological Conditions of the No. 72 Coal Seam in the Sunan Mining Area in Anhui Province, China

Abstract

Many geological factors affect coal mining and different geological conditions often correspond to different coal mining methods and different mining costs; therefore, it is of great significance to conduct quantitative and comprehensive evaluations of the mining geological conditions. In this study, we used the No. 72 coal seam in the Sunan mining area in the Anhui Province in China as an example. The study area was divided into 168 evaluation units and the coal seam thickness, the geological structure complexity, the gas content, and the geo temperature were chosen as evaluation parameters. The maximum difference normalization method was used to quantify and unify the parameter values. The evaluation factors were weighted and comprehensive evaluation indexes were obtained for each evaluation unit to achieve a quantitative and comprehensive evaluation. The evaluation results show that the mining geological conditions can be summarized as the following proportions in the different grades: 0% in Grade I, 18.5 in Grade II, 50% in Grade III, and 31.50% in Grade IV. The research methods used in this study provide a useful reference for the quantitative and comprehensive study of mining geological conditions in other coal seams and other mining areas.