Coal Age

AUG 2012

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2000-2012 implications for the coal business and the fate of Massey Energy. Ultimately, the investigation determines that a poorly main- tained shearing machine sparked a methane ignition that prop- agated through a mine with hazardous levels of coal dust accumulations. Acting on orders from the president, Main begins a nation- wide inspection blitz on underground coal mining operations. Underground coal operators are besieged with enforcement activity the likes of which they have never seen before. MSHA uses every tool at its disposal to try and find the next potential disaster and eliminate it. An Organized UMWA Gets What it Wants In mid-December 2001, the UMWA and the BCOA reached an agreement on a new national contract, more than year before the old five-year accord was set to expire. The new five-year agreement would run through December 31, 2006, ensuring labor peace in the coalfields for another five years. Active union miners now stand at 26,000. Overall the contract covers more than 100,000, which includes laid off miners and retirees. The UMWA ratified the next collective bargaining agreement with the BCOA during December 2006 with an unprecedented 80% voting in favor of the agreement. CONSOL Energy is the only member of the BCOA at this point. The new five-year agree- ment offers a 20% increase in pay across the board, $1,000 bonus (paid immediately), $10 per month per year increase for future retirees and full health care for active and retired miners and dependents. Underground miners working at the top rate will now earn $24.42/hour in the final year of the contract. Developments in Surface Mining The decade opens with Bucyrus International launching the 495BII electric shovel that has a 100-ton-per-pass nominal payload. Cat launches the MineStar system, an integrated informa- tion system that links mining machines with business applica- tions. Modules provide tracking for truck assignments, machine health, production and overall business planning. It uses several technologies, including GPS, high capacity wire- less mobile communications, onboard computers and office software. Superior Highwall Mining revives the Metec system for recovering coal from seams exposed at the highwall base. Mounted on crawler pads, the system pushes a continuous miner cutter head into the coal seam while a set of enclosed twin screws auger the coal back to the surface. A slewing conveyor stock- piles coal on the bench. The machine can cut the full width of the cutter head to about 1,000 deep into the mountain. It leaves a fender in place to support the mountain. Some mines pumped the void full of concrete (or flyash) and then return to pull the fender. *Coal Age, January 2006 178 www.coalage.com Contour Mining's Powelton highwall miner averages more than 60,000 tons per month. *Coal Age, August 2009 On Friday, December 17, 2004, Arch Coal's Black Thunder mine achieved the 1-billion-ton shipment milestone. During the 27-year life of the mine, it has loaded more than 71,000 trains. Stretched end-to-end, the trains would circle the equator more than three times. Digital electronic detonators for use in blasting have been on the market for more than six years. During the early part of this decade, they have gained widespread acceptance. During 2003-2004, BNI Coal's Center mine completes con- struction of America's first new dragline in more than a decade. The first sections of the Liberty dragline's tub assembly arrived during March 2003 and the machine begins operating in October 2004. An article in the March 2005 details the erection process from start to finish. P&H; launches the C-Series of electric shovels and rotary blasthole drills. According to the company, the C series deliver substantial improvements in three key areas—control, comforts and consistency—with improved performance enabled by the Centurion Control System. Centurion's monitoring and diag- nostics capabilities translate into improved machine health, reliability and safety. Cat breaks with the mechanical drive tradition and launches the 345-ton 795F electric-drive haul truck. The company says its customers want a Cat truck and it sees the addition of an elec- tric drive as a complementary move. Most of the haul truck manufacturers are working on improving the machine's visibility. Several object detection sys- tems are tested. The hope is that the trucks will be able to detect smaller objects in their immediate vicinity, other equipment such as trucks on the haul roads and the electric shovels, and large stationary items, such as the truck dumps. Some of the most sophisticated systems use a combination of radar and front- and rear-view cameras to improve operator visibility. Underground Mining Equipment During May 2000, Fletcher debuts new roof bolting technology. The company offers the Quad Ranger, a new four-head bolter, and also discusses its new Feedback Control System. The sys- tem uses a microprocessor to perform the same tasks as a PLC in a much more reliable and cost-effective package. It incorpo- rates manual control input with the feedback driven drill and bolt cycles. After receiving approval from West Virginia mining authori- ties, Peabody Energy's Rivers Edge mine in Boone County, 100th Anniversary Special Issue August 2012

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