- Under the sands of the THAR desert in Pakistan lies one of the World’s largest coal Reserves (Lignite A-B)
- At an estimated 170 billion tons, there is enough energy trapped in the reserves to satisfy the energy needs of Pakistan for the next hundred years
- The reserves are buried deep under the desert sands and are separated by giant reservoirs of fossilized aquifers – the exact quality of this water has never been determined so its treatment for potential agricultural use needs to be studied
- Any large-scale mining design will have to carefully address the challenge of how to deal with the inevitable release of trapped water in large quantities in the process of mining
- Thar coal is a high moisture coal which is prone to spontaneous combustion - particularly when left in large piles or stored for long periods of time - therefore, the transport of the coal for long distances is dangerous
- While there is high moisture, the sulfur content of Thar coal is low making it environmentally more attractive
- Thar coal lends itself to the application of proprietary Clean Coal technologies that are represented by the TharPak members- allowing the consortium to overcome these challenges