Inverclyde, West Dunbartonshire, East Dunbartonshire, Million Tonnes of Coal and a Similar Output Was Produced from the Site at Damside, Near Allanton
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200000 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 300000 10 20 30 COAL 90 250 300 90 Coal is a combustible sedimentary rock made of lithified plant remains. It is formed by the progressive biological and thermal degradation of vegetation, which is consolidated between other sedimentary rocks, notably seatearth, mudstone, siltstone and sandstone, to form coal seams (layers). These vary in thickness from a few centimetres up to rarely 3.5 m, although exceptionally thicker seams may also occur. Almost all onshore coal resources in Scotland occur in rocks of Carboniferous age (300 - 330 million years old) and the main strata containing coal seams at fairly regular intervals are referred to as 'Coal Measures'. The Clyde valley includes part of the Central Coalfield of Scotland and the Douglas Coalfield. The coal seams are mostly found in the Limestone Coal Formation, the overlying Upper Limestone Formation and the Lower and Middle Coal Measures. The Upper Coal Measures is essentially barren of coal. The Passage and Lawmuir formations have also been worked in the past. The majority of the INVERCLYDE, WEST DUNBARTONSHIRE, coals in the area are good quality and have low sulphur and ash contents. EAST DUNBARTONSHIRE, RENFREWSHIRE, SALSBURGH 1 1A The Central Coalfield forms a broad syncline, in parts of which lie unproductive Upper Coal Measures. Most of the Coal Measures lie on BARGEDDIE 1 SALSBURGH 2 the western limb of the syncline, which is a complex and faulted structure with many subsidiary structures such as the Salsburgh CRAIGHEAD Anticline in the south-west of coalfield and the gently dipping Lanarkshire basin in the south. The Douglas Coalfield covers a much EAST RENFREWSHIRE, NORTH LANARKSHIRE, smaller area in South Lanarkshire where much of the available resources of shallow coal have been worked out by opencast mining. PEDL104 Most of the worked coal seams are in the range from 0.5 - 1 m thick, exceptionally reaching 3 m thick mainly in the Limestone Coal SOUTH LANARKSHIRE and CITY OF GLASGOW ALKANE Formation and the Middle Coal Measures. Large areas of the coalfields are no longer worked either because they are exhausted or because the remaining coal cannot be worked economically at present. There has been a long history of coal mining in the Clyde valley with workings dating back 300 years in Paisley, but due to declining Mineral Resource Information for Sustainable Communities 6 50 industry and changes in mining methods during the 20th century deep mining has ceased in the region. The last operation was at the Backshot Mine, a small drift operation at Fort in 1988. Since the reserves at depth have been extensively mined over the last two centuries it is unlikely that sufficient coal remains to permit economic deep mining. Mineral Resources Despite the closure of all the deep mines coal remains an important mineral commodity in the Clyde valley. Considerable tonnages of Scale 1:100 000 shallow bituminous coal are currently being produced from opencast sites. Opencast coal mining can only be considered where the ratio Riskend (Ign) of coal to overburden is favourable. Factors affecting this ratio include the thickness of coal, the type and thickness of the overburden, the dip of the coal, its quality and the extent to which the coal has previously been worked. 80 Compiled by R.A. Smith, T. Bide, E.K. Hyslop, N.J.P. Smith, T. Coleman and A.A. McMillan. 80 Project Leaders: E.J. Bee and J.M. Mankelow. Beltmoss (Ign) One of the largest coal resources lies within the Limestone Coal Formation of Namurian age, where 13 seams have been mined; some of Netherwood the most extensive workings are in the Possil Main and Knightswood Gas coals. Workings in the Limestone Coal Formation are Digital cartography by N.A. Spencer, British Geological Survey. concentrated in the north of the region with many around Kilsyth, where dips are steeper and structures such as the Riggin Anticline, are Published 2008. tighter. The Limestone Coal Formation has also been worked near Lochwinnoch and around Forth at the Wilsontown site and at the Climpy Opencast site which also produced sandstone. There may be potential in the East Kilbride-Blantyre area (other than the Edge Craigmaddie Shallow coal with less than 50m overburden Farm site already worked), and between Kirkmuirhill and Carluke. The opencast operations at Pool Farm and Wester Mosshat are now closed. This map is one in a series of four maps commissioned Scottish Government Aggregate Deep coal between 50 m and 1200 m Dalreach Dullatur Levy Fund and co-funded by the BGS Sustainable Mineral Solutions project (contract Queenziemill The Upper Limestone Formation has seen limited extraction; a few minor coal seams have been worked below the Calmy Limestone in Oil-Shale North Lanarkshire and around Darnley and north-west Glasgow. The only major operation in the Upper Limestone Formation is at GA/06F/144). A "guide to mineral information in the central belt of Scotland" (BGS ref: Broken Cross Muir and its surrounding extensions in the Douglas Coalfield. There have also been workings in the Lower Carboniferous OR/08/011) has also been published to compliment this map series. Blairkaith Lower Limestone Formation. From below the base of the Lower Limestone Formation, around Bridge of Weir and north of Glasgow, the Douglasmuir Exploration wells Hurlet Coal has been worked. The Lawmuir Formation has also had workings in the Quarrelton Thick Coal around Johnston and Paisley. Kirkton Hill Dumbuckhill (Ign) (SiS, Ign) Croy (Ign) Petroleum Exploration and Development The Lower and Middle Coal Measures have been and continue to be productive. Over 20 named seams have at sometime been worked BGS map reference: PEDL Licence issued under the Petroleum and there is currently one (Glentaggart) opencast site operating in the Coal Measures in the Clyde valley. Bituminous coal opencasting (Production) Act 1934 (as at August 2007) Smith, R A, Bide, T, Hyslop, E K , Smith, N J P , Coleman, T, and McMillan, A A. (2008). has recently been active in the Lower Coal Measures between Headlesscross and Allanton. The Headlesscross site yielded some 2 Mineral Resource map for Inverclyde, West Dunbartonshire, East Dunbartonshire, million tonnes of coal and a similar output was produced from the site at Damside, near Allanton. The Lower Coal Measures south of Glasgow has also seen some activity. West of Douglas the Glentaggart site is coaling in the Lower Coal Measures although growth may Refrewshire, East Renfrewshire, North Lanarkshire, South Lanarkshire and City of Glasgow. be constrained by the Geological SSSI along the Kennox valley. There are potential sites at Long Plantation and Mainshill Wood near OR/08/15. Douglas. The former large opencasts at Dalqhuandy and Townhead/Rigside have now been restored There was one opencast coal site in the Middle Coal Measures, at Drumshangie, North Lanarkshire, now being restored. Drumbreck (Peat) HYDROCARBONS Drumbow Moss (Peat) This area lies within the late Palaeozoic Midland Valley graben, which has a proven hydrocarbon system. A thick sequence of SAND & GRAVEL Carboniferous rocks includes oil-shale source rocks, thin sandstones as potential reservoirs and interbedded shale seals. Many of the 70 compressive and transpressive structures were formed during the Variscan deformation at the end of the Carboniferous. The organic 70 Superficial deposits Reilly (Ign) Huntershill maturity of the source rocks has been shown to lie within the oil window in most places, although overmaturity occurs in the vicinity of the Midland Valley sill complex. Sub-alluvial and river terrace deposits: Inferred resources Hillend (Ign) Number Name Operator LicenceReleased Status Cairneyhill (Ign) Glaciofluvial deposits LG/05-1 Bargeddie 1Teredo EXL117 Y Plugged & abandoned Meadowside Quay (Cr) LH/01-1A Salsburgh 1 & 1A D’Arcy A103 Y Plugged & abandoned Raised Beach deposits Quaternary LH/01-2 Craighead 1 Taylor Woodrow PL187 Y Plugged & abandoned Kenmure Cowcaddens LH/01-3 Salsburgh 2 Candecca PL187 Y Plugged & abandoned PEAT Table 1 Status of wells drilled in the area Peat Craigton The first exploration well was drilled by D'Arcy in 1944, on the surface, north-plunging Salsburgh Anticline, with two further wells at this Tam’s Loup (Ign) location in 1964 (by BP) and in 1985 (Candecca). 1A well had gas shows (33 000 ft 3/day) in the Strathclyde Group. Taylor Woodrow Braehead drilled a dry well at Craighead, to the south in 1981. Marinex drilled at Bargeddie, on the outskirts of Glasgow, which was completed as 3 Duntilland (Ign) Hassockrigg a gas discovery in 1989, with 0.4 million ft /day of gas tested near the top of the Strathclyde Group. This discovery has not been CRUSHED ROCK AGGREGATE developed (Table 1). Several other levels also had smaller gas shows. Leven Seat well, which encountered oil shows, was drilled by Kelt Greenoakhill (Sg) Bing (Fr) in 1988 near the West Lothian border. The reservoir targets were the Dunnet and Granton sandstones. Igneous rocks Bredisholm Abandoned Mine Methane (AMM), Coal Mine Methane (CMM) and Coalbed Methane (CBM) potential Quartz-Dolerite sills and dykes (Midland Valley Sill-Complex) Within the coalfields there is potential coalbed methane either from borings in unworked coal seams, similar to those at Airth, or from the Carboniferous to Early Permian drainage of gas from abandoned mines. The National Coal Board produced coal mine methane from Cardowan Colliery and sold it to Olivine-Dolerite sills and felsic intrusions igneous intrusions Highcraig (Ign) Black and Whyte Distillers in Stepps between 1972-82. Mining-related gas seeps also occurred in Chryston and gas monitoring (Midland Valley Felsic Intrusion and Basic Nitshill boreholes had to be drilled here. 60 60 Sill Suite) Greenhill Giffnock Alkane currently holds licence PEDL 104 in the Hamilton-Motherwell area for abandoned mine methane exploration.