Kansas Coal Resources and Their Potential for Utilization in the Near Future

Lawrence L. Brady

Preliminary evaluation of deep coal resources in Kansas indicates nearly 50 billion tons (45 billion MT) of coal in eastern Kansas. The Cherokee Group and Marmaton Groups of Middle Pennsylvanian age are the important coal-bearing geologic units. Most of the coal beds are thin, with only a limited amount (1.85 billion tons or 1.68 billion MT) from coal beds exceeding 42 in. (105 cm) in thickness. Most of these coal thicknesses were determined from geophysical logs run for oil and gas tests, and the potential for a much larger resource of thick coal exists in several areas of the state. Depths of this deep-coal resource range from 100 ft (30 m) down to approximately 3,000 ft (900 m) in the deeper parts of the western Cherokee basin.

Limited data are available on the quality of these deep coals, but that data and the association of the coals with marine sediments in the Cherokee Group lead to an expectation of medium to high-sulfur coal. This potential coal quality and the present coal market limit the potential for development of underground coal mines. Coal rank, especially in southeastern Kansas, indicates promise for a coal-bed methane resource. The high volatile A bituminous rank (HvAb) of coal in this area, with favorable depths and multiple coal beds especially in the Cherokee Group, makes this area potentially favorable for coal-bed methane production.

A strippable coal resource of nearly 3 billion tons (2.7 billion MT) of coal under less than 100 ft (30 m) of overburden and having a coal rank of high volatile A and high volatile B bituminous (HvAb-HvBb) has led to significant strip mining of these coal beds in the past, but with a limited potential in the near future. Fluidized bed combustion technology as well as continued use of coals in certain industrial applications, especially in kilns at cement manufacturing plants, holds the best future for these thin coal beds in Kansas.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #91025©1989 AAPG Midcontinent, Sept. 24-26, 1989, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.