Orientation and major research problems of coal geological exploration in China under new conditions

Coal is a major energy source in China and an important raw material in the coal chemical industry in the country. Over the past 70 years since the founding of New China, coal geological exploration has been carried out in close combination with the national strategic demand, discovering the urgently needed coal resources for the country and ensuring the sufficient supply of national coal energy. This paper systematically summarizes the primary achievements made in coal geological surveys in recent years, analyzes the major research problems with the development of coal geological exploration under the current new conditions, and positions coal geological exploration. Moreover, it puts forward the key research philosophy of “one theory and 10 main technologies” and expands the research scope of coal geological exploration. This study is of great research significance for ensuring the role of coal resources as a “stabilizer” and “ballast” in the economic and social development of China. This study concludes that: (1) Under the new conditions, the coal geological exploration has shifted from ensuring the safety of coal energy and resources to a new stage, in which the coal geological exploration should serve the construction of green mines, intelligent mine mining, and ecological security in addition to guaranteeing the safe supply of coal energy and resources; (2) Ten major targets should be achieved in the coal geological exploration in the future, including the exploration and utilization of coal resources, the evaluation of geological conditions, the warning of dynamic geological events, the treatment and restoration of mine environment, the function restoration of ecological geological layers, and the modification of geological conditions; (3) Given that multiple energies and multiple mineral resources occur in coal, coal measures, and coal basins, it is necessary to study and establish a cooperative exploration mode of minerals paragenetic or associated with coal and coal measures. The purpose is to enhance research on the law of multi-mineral accumulation and various resources in the whole coal measures and coal basins while paying attention to coal and to promote the cooperative exploration, exploitation, and utilization of multi-energy and multi-mineral resources in coal, coal measures, and coal basins; (4) To deal with the geological guarantee problems with intelligent coal mining, it is advisable to enhance research on the seepage media and flow-field evolutionary law of groundwater under mining disturbance and on the hidden hazard-causing factors such as the mechanisms of gas (coalbed methane) escape and outbursts through multi-means collaborative technology. The aim is to make accurate analyses and predictions for the exploration and resource utilization of hidden hazard-causing geological factors such as mine water and CBM escape; (5) To satisfy the demand for the development of coal geological exploration into the ecological geological exploration of coal under new conditions, a new philosophy of performing ecological environment governance and restoration by geological means is proposed. The core of the philosophy is to form artificial geological bodies coordinating with surrounding geological and ecological conditions by manually intervening and restoring disturbed or damaged ecological geological layers.