Quality and Petrographic Characteristics of the Lacustrine Ermenek Coal (Early Miocene), Turkey

The early Miocene Yenimahalle Formation including alluvial-lacustrine sediments and a mineable coal seam with an average of 5 m in thickness rests unconformably upon the basement and is also unconformably overlain by marine limestones of the middle-late Miocene Mut Formation in the Ermenek coal basin. The coal basin in the present study has been subdivided into two areas, Canakci and PamukluTepebasi, which are separated by the basement and a fault, in order to determine coal properties in detail. The investigated subbituminous coals with an average of 0.40 % Ro huminite reflectance often contain gastropod shells (Planorbidae) which commonly maintain the original aragonite and calcite composition. The coals have similar chemical properties and petrographic composition in the two areas, but their sulphur contents are clearly different. In the Canakci area the coals on an air-dried basis contain distinctly less total sulphur (avg. 1.3 %) and organic sulphur contents (0.13 0.15 %) than in the Pamuklu-Tepebasi...