Original Article Controlling Factors,Accumulation Model and Target Zone Prediction of the Coal-bed Methane in the Huanghebei Coalfield, North China Dawei Lv, 1 Jitao Chen, 2 Zengxue Li, 1 Guiqiang Zheng, 3 Cuiyu Song, 1 Haiyan Liu, 1 Yanru Meng 1 and Dongdong Wang 1 1 Shandong Provincial Key Laboratory of Depositional Mineralization and Sedimentary Minerals, College of Geological Sciences and Engineering, Shandong University of Science and Technology, Qingdao, China, 2 Key Laboratory of Economic Stratigraphy and Palaeogeography, Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing, China and 3 School of Safety Engineering, North China Institute of Science and Technology, Langfang, China Abstract The Huanghebei Coalfield, one of the coal production bases in North China, was considered as a coalfield without coal-bed methane (CBM) during past decades. In recent years, however, CBM has been discovered in coal-bearing successions. In order to understand the CBM geological characteristics and accumulation process in this area, fifteen coal samples were collected and analyzed with respect to coal maceral and reflectance. The result shows that the gas distribution is uneven and the content varies in different areas even for the same coal bed. The storage of CBM is affected by geological factors such as burial depth, geological structures, and magmatic intrusion, among which the former two are more important in the formation of CBM. Deep burial of coal beds with the presence of cap-rock mudstone can seal CBM. The CBM is also accumulated and preserved at the place where normal faults are distributed. Magmatic intrusion causes contact metamorphism and controls the CBM formation by heating the coal-bearing successions. The obtained data indicate the geological conditions in northeastern Zhaoguan Mine are preferable for CBM formation and conservation; recent exploration estimates the CBM geological reserves up to 282.16 Mm 3 and average of reserve abundance at 0.1662 × 10 8 m 3 km -2 . The Changqing Mine is a potential prospect in terms of CBM exploration since its geological conditions (structures and burial depth) are similar to the Zhaoguan Mine and its cap rock is even better. Keywords: coal-bed methane, Huanghebei Coalfield, Jixi Mine, Qiuji Mine, Zhaoguan Mine. 1. Introduction Coal-bed gas, also known as coal-bed methane (CBM), is a natural gas that is commonly formed and preserved within coal beds (Deul & Kim, 1986; Law & Rice, 1993; Lama, 1995; Peng, 2007). CBM has been considered as a major mine hazard since the early to middle 19th century. CBM explosions first occurred in the U.S. in 1810 and in France in 1845. Early investi- gations of CBM were mainly concentrated on preven- tion of gas outbursts and explosions (Lama, 1995; Ye et al., 1998). Methane research in the U.S. was incor- porated in health and safety studies (Deul & Kim, 1986; Thielemann et al., 2001). It was not until the Received 3 February 2014. Accepted for publication 11 May 2014. Corresponding author: D. Lv, Shandong Provincial Key Laboratory of Depositional Mineralization and Sedimentary Minerals, College of Geological Sciences and Engineering, Shandong University of Science and Technology, Qingdao 266590, China. Email: lvdawei95@ 163.com doi: 10.1111/rge.12044 Resource Geology Vol. 64, No. 4: 332–345 © 2014 The Society of Resource Geology 332