Economic Impact of Underground Coal Gasification Technology on Coal Reserves in Colombia

Abstract

Given the in situ gasification technology (Underground Coal Gasification-UCG), as an alternative to coal consumption in an alternative way, it allows the exploitation of inaccessible reserves to conventional mining technologies. In this article I answer the question on how the volume of reserves available is increased given the possibility to exploit more resources and the way that this increasing in reserves impacts the potential economic benefit for the country. Mining is a very important wealth resource in Colombia as a contribution to GDP. This is a significant fact due to the existence of a considerable volume of reserves and the prospect of the future role of coal in world energy production.