Mountaintop removal

Mountaintop removal mining is efficient and beneficial. Mountaintop removal mining is a very divisive item in this state and across Appalachia. West Virginia is the Mountain State and has been dubbed "Mountain Momma." I never knew that about West Virginia. Mountaintop removal mining is more efficientand safer tha underground mining, plus it has a positive effect on the people. It creates jobs for miners and it helps keep the lights on. Coal is what powers this state. Animals as well as people adapt to changing enviroments all the time and when compared to the actual benefits of this form of mining, the impacts are worth taking. I look at the fact that cheaper energy, steel and safer mining conditions.

Coal Camp

Big Stick coal camp is located in Big Stick, West Virginia. The coal camp was owned by Pemberton Coal and Coke Company for awhile, until Lillybrook Coal company took over in 1942. The population at the coal camp was around 1,700 people. It wasn't a very popular coal camp, but there was a school for both white kids and black kids. There was also a company store just like many other coal camps. The mine closed around 1951. The miners and people that lived there gradually started leaving and the coal camp became abandoned in the late 1950's.

Surface Mining

Strip mining is used when coal is near the surface or when the overburden is unstable. As mining progresses, the overburden is placed in the previous mine cavity. The advantages of strip mining are to save miners in case of an accident. Instead of shaft mining, where you are in a cave that could collapse at any given moment, you just take off layers of ground to get minerals you need. The disadvantages are pollution. Pollutive cyanide can turn beautiful creeks nasty. Gas that's been trapped for tens of thousands of years is released and it is pollutive.

Contour mining is a type of strip or surface mining that follows the contour of a hill or mountain leaving terraces in the mountainside. An advantage of contour mining is the safety. One disadvantage is soil erosion.

Mountaintop removal is when the top of hills are removed to access horizontal coal seams. The overburden is pushed to areas between high elevations. Following reclamation, the original contour is not restored. An advantage of mountaintop removal mining is that the result of the flat land caused by the mining is good for future development. A disadvantage is numerous houses can be damaged due to mining sites being so close.

Underground Mining

Drift mining is where the coal seam intersects the surface. The mine enters the seam in a horizontal direction. Advantages of drift mining is its a easy way to mine, its a cheap way to mine. The disadvantages of drift mining is its not the safest way to mine as the tunnels may collapse killing and trapping miners.

Advantages of Longwall mining are high recovery, lower operating costs, easier to supervise, easier to train miners, works under weak roof, clean coarse product, and simple ventilation. The disadvantages of longwall mining are small problems equal big production losses, dust control is difficult, and overloading conveyor system.

 

 

 

Shaft mining is a common method of accessing a coal seam in which elevators provide access to mines. Shaft coal mines in West Virginia are commonly deeper than 1,000 feet below the surface. The advantages of Shaft mining are that mining can be done as deep as possible and that it reduces the rock bursts or mines from falling off the ground. The disadvantages are that it is costly and very risky as it can lead to fatal accidents if the person mining does not take enough care of himself or herself.

 

 

In room and pillar mining, nearly half the coal is left behind to support the mine roof. Pillars can "squeeze" putting pressure on adjacent pillars leading to roof collapse. Roof falls are a constant danger. Advantages and disadvantages of room and pillar mining are before proceeding to the details of mine planning, it is important to understand the advantages and disadvantages of room and pillar mining. Ideally, the mine engineer will plan an operation that will maximize and/ or assure the continuation of the systems advantages while minimizing or eliminating the known disadvantages.

 

Continuous mining machines can be used with drift or room and pillar mines. One miner can operate a continuous miner to a rotating steel drum with tungsten carbide teeth to mine 5 tons of coal per minute.