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 Post subject: How anthracite is mined?
PostPosted: Mon Jun 30, 2008 10:11 pm 
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Joined: Thu Jun 26, 2008 3:39 pm
Posts: 170
Location: West Virginia
I don't want to sound dumb but I was wondering if you all undercut the coal or do you shoot on solid? No wait that might be a bad question cause I know we are not allowed to shoot on solid. Do you all use the same powder as we do? nitro,Jelly bells, or do you all use airdox? Also were there any anthracite mines that used conventional equipment? ie; cutter, drill, loader, scoop ,buggie or miner? Thanks.


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PostPosted: Mon Jun 30, 2008 10:20 pm 
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Joined: Mon May 08, 2006 2:16 pm
Posts: 1500
Location: Central Ohio
Well what is wild is the answer is going to vary depending upon which field you are mining & which part of the vein you are mining as well.

IMPORTANT anthracite is veins vs. our coal is seams.

The northern field (now no active mines) used equipment similar to bituminous mines because the pitch was flat for the most part. The further south you go the vein then starts to increase at a pitched angle & then good old gravity assists in the mining methods unless you refer to the Basin or the very bottom of the vein where it flattens back out again then continous miners can be used.

All I can say is looking at some of the infrastructure built and engineenered for anthracite it is absolutely amazing for the lower tonnage as compared to the mines you are used to. If you have not been to an Anty mine we HIGHLY suggest a trip it is WELL worth it.

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PostPosted: Mon Jun 30, 2008 11:05 pm 
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Joined: Mon Jul 09, 2007 5:11 pm
Posts: 899
Location: NEPA
To answer your question on the undercutting, the short answer is no we don't do that, at least no mines are at the moment. You basicaly just set your shots so that you blow the middle first, than the bottom and top. Gravity does the rest. As far as mining equipment goes it's just basic pnuematic tools, hand held air drills for coal, jacklegs for rock, air chisels for digging hitches, and an occasional air tugger for lugging props and chute plank up the pitch. Muckers are fairly common as are trammers. It's the old fashioned way of doing things but there hasn't been a machine invented yet that could run a 70 degree pitch. There are two anthracite mines running continuous miners at the moment, Harmony and Kimmels. The rest are doing things the same way they did it 100 years ago, including the one I work at. The nice thing is the pitch helps you plus we have a 7 foot vein of coal and will be in a 30 to 50 foot vein shortly were myself and Chris work.

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PostPosted: Tue Jul 01, 2008 4:29 pm 
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Joined: Sat Aug 25, 2007 8:10 pm
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Location: My own little hole in ground.
First of all, let me apologize for hacking this thread, but I'm still in bewilderment because the time of A's post was after 10 p.m.
I'm just waking from the faint.

:mrgreen:

xo
~S

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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Tue Jul 01, 2008 4:41 pm 
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Location: NEPA
It doesn't happen often so don't get use to it!

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PostPosted: Wed Jul 02, 2008 12:58 am 
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Joined: Sat Jul 28, 2007 3:48 am
Posts: 70
Location: Stockton, Ca
I am amazed how much mining anthracite is like mining good ole hard rock out west. It must be nice though not having to drill lifters (or do you?) for your shots and it sounds like you shoot the faces backwards. Out west (at least in the mines I worked) we'd drill the burn (center of the face), box, knee, ribs back and lifters and then basically shoot the round in that order. The lifters would fluff the muck pile if they didn't boot. That usually equated to between 30 and 40 holes. When drilling with a jack leg and driving 10 X 10 drift/decline, that gets tiring really quick. We'd drill for the first half of shift. How big a round do you guys go for when drilling?.

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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Wed Jul 02, 2008 8:41 am 
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Joined: Thu Jun 26, 2008 3:39 pm
Posts: 170
Location: West Virginia
No one really shoots coal anymore. Its so hard to get permits from the feds and the price of powder has went through the roof. There a few mines in eastern Ky that I heard still shoots coal in the extremly low stuff. Less than 27 inches! If we did shoot coal regulations require us to use a cutter to undercut the face and we normally use 1'' steel. Can't use a pick to undercut due to roof control regulations.


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Wed Jul 02, 2008 3:12 pm 
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Joined: Fri Jul 15, 2005 2:34 pm
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Location: Within 60 Miles of the Northern Anthracite Field
we shoot coal every day we work. gotta do it right and use a low ammount of powder in the right place so you just fracture it and knock it out of place, if you blow it to pieces its not worth much. the breakers want large pieces.

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