Suetonius Grant Heatly

Heatly was an English East India merchant and official known as a first who tried to develop systematic coal mining in India.

Heatly was born in Newport, Rhode Island in a family of Scottish descendant who moved to England at the time of the American Revolution. In 1766 he joined the English East India Company, and as a writer went to India where he became Collector of Chotanagpur and Palamu (now part of Jharkhand).

During his travels he noticed local tribal people burning coal fires. Since the location was not far from the Damodar River he recognized the business potential in coal which could be mined and floated down the river to Calcutta. In partnership with John Sumner, he applied in 1774 to Lord Warren Hastings, the Governor General of Bengal to produce and sell coal in Bengal and its dependencies. In exchange for permission, Heatly and Sumner offered to supply to the EIC 10,000 maunds, or around 40 kgs of pit coal every year for a period of five years.

After they obtained exclusive rights from Warren Hastings to work and sell coal in Bengal for a period of 18 years, they began to work on six mines. But, the scientific analysis revealed that the Bengal coal was less effective and poorer in quality than the coal imported from England. As a consequence of those results, any further exploration and mining of Bengal coal were discouraged until further notice.

In a meantime, European miners brought to work at their mines were ravaged by disease. Sumner decided to return to England, while Heatly remained in Bengal, where he died in 1793.