Conclusions

WHATEVER the size and extent of a project to evaluate a coal reserve, data obtained from a carefully planned and executed drilling will add considerably to the accuracy of the conclusions reached by the overall project. A fundamental factor in the success of such a project is coordination of various activities including drilling, geophysical logging, sample recovery and packaging, and laboratory analyses. The purposes for which the data will be used must be evaluated before the drilling begins, because some purposes can determine the course of action or types of equipment or testing that will be done on the core sample. Flow diagrams that can also specify schedules can be important to the success of the project. Critical to the core sample being representative of the seam are precise procedures during drilling followed by careful handling and packaging of the core sample and finally sequences of testing that will produce analytical data representative of the core sample.