Coal Age Magazine - For nearly 100 years, Coal Age has been the magazine that readers can trust for guidance and insight on this important industry.
Issue link: https://coal.epubxp.com/i/82345
consol energy continued Continued from pg. 28... those industries are the safest and most compliant companies. That's true for manufacturing, steel, power plants, chemicals, coal mining, and natural gas exploration and production." What worries DeIuliis the most is society's disconnect between the reali- ty of what the coal industry brings to the table for society and the politically correct view of the industry. "The degree of the disconnect is amazing," DeIuliis said. "Are we perfect as an industry? Certainly not. Have we made mistakes in the past? We have. Are our best days with safety, compliance and continuous improvement in front of us as an industry? They are. "To see this industry attacked and maligned to the extent it has is very disturbing on a personal and profes- sional level," DeIuliis said. "Middle America gets it, but the people living on the coasts do not. A lot of people live in New York, Washington and Los Angeles, which are all powered by coal and other fossil fuels, and they have been misled about energy. "This is a noble industry and what we do matters," DeIuliis said. "If we do not accomplish what we need to get done, regional economies, this country and the global economy will suffer greatly. We provide a standard of living for the devel- oped world that is second to none—the best it's ever been in the history of human existence. For the developing world, we hold the key to getting the 3 billion people who need access to the reliable, inexpen- sive electricity they need to improve their quality of life." mesh the ribs. They also have the tilt bolters on the continuous miners. Bolters have also been mounted on the loaders. "While the shuttle car is tramming to the feeder breaker, we can install a few center bolts," Brock said. "That's a huge advan- tage. Some areas, especially when you are cutting a longwall set-up face, can be 22- to 26-ft wide. When it's wide, we can only cut 40 ft and then we have to bolt 40 ft. With the loader, we can continue to put those bolts up. We have five of these units in operation now and we are expecting to get three more later this year." New Technology Underground Discussing some of the new recent regula- tions, Brock explained that safety at CON- SOL Energy is not driven by regulations. "We have a moral obligation to our employees," Brock said. "That's how we view safety. It's a process that continues to evolve. Some of the new regulations may be burdensome, and some of them may or may not improve miner's safety. The laws are on the books and we will comply with them. Our culture is not one where we improve safety because of new regulations. We are doing it because it's the right thing to do for our employees." Nonetheless, all underground coal operators have had to contend with new regulations such as new communication systems mandated by the Miner ACT. "When the requirement for everyone to carry a radio first came out, we wondered how we would deal with this," Brock said. "Well, we managed through it and our mines are better for it today. In addition to safety, it's a great management tool. We can talk to any individual in the mine now using our radios. Not long ago, we would be pulling belts or moving a shearer, min- ers would attempt to communicate with each other with their cap lamps. Today, the operator has hand-held radio and he's driving a machine with the very best diesel engine. They say pull forward 10 ft and he can pull forward 10 ft." The Bailey Complex is using a leaky feeder system with handsets and tracking devices on the miners. "It's unbelievable how well this system is working," Brock said. "We know where all of the miners are located all of the time." The new CNX Center in Canonsburg, Pa. Proximity detection technology is cur- rently being tested on most of the equip- ment at one of the sections at Bailey. "We have it on scoops, shuttle cars and load- 30 www.coalage.com 100th Anniversary Special Issue ers," Brock said. "We want to get a system in place as soon as possible to protect our people. Unfortunately, we have discov- ered some issues and are workig with manufacturers to develop the safest sys- tem possible for our employees. These systems still need to be approved by MSHA." Proximity detection is a delicate bal- ance, Brock explained, because "you want to give the operators room to work, but you want to protect them as well. If these sys- tems work the way we expect, we could prevent people from entering the red zone. We would effectively engineer out mis- takes made by employees." The Underground Mine Academy at BMX The Bailey Complex employs 1,500 miners. According to Brock, finding miners is not difficult, finding experience miners is. CON- SOL Energy finds itself training a lot of inex- perienced miners. So much so that the company recently completed a $12 million underground training center at BMX, com- monly referred to as the BMX Underground Mine Academy. Located right off the shaft bottom at BMX, it has fully-equipped train- ing rooms with projectors, Internet access and computer availability. Then 600-ft away, it has an actual continuous miner section. "Right now we are using it to train fore- man, but we will eventually begin training inexperienced miners," Brock said. "We will train six to eight miners for a week at a time. We let them operate the equipment, a shuttle car, loaders, center bolters and miners. They use the same mining meth- ods that we use every day. They have to establish ventilation and perform all pre- op checks. It has been a huge success." CONSOL Energy recognized the need approximately three to four years ago when it began to experience one of the first waves of retiring Baby Boomers. "In 2007, we had 7,500 employees and today we have 9,100. We hire 1,000 to 1,500 employees a year. We are replacing people with 25 to 45 years of experience with people that have zero days of experience." Brock is confident in CONSOL Energy's ability to attract miners. "We will find miners because a mining job is a good-paying job with great benefits," Brock said. "I call it a single-household job. One parent can work while the other one takes care of the family." August 2012