Marketplace

Surface Coal Mining

Surface coal mining does not receive much publicity. Most people are unaware of its existence as a practice, but it has been happening since 1912. This is because few people are very well educated in the way mining works. People still imagine old ancient mine carts, gas lamps, and wooden pick axes when they think of mining. There is still that old image of snow white and the seven dwarves and the thought that something like surface coal mining could exist was something of a dream. But now with modern technology and great machines out there we are finally able to participate in surface mining and it has only gotten easier as time has gone on. Of course from the name surface mining it is not immediately apparent what it is or how it works, so I will explain it. Basically surface coal mining is a form of above ground coal mining. It involved using machines to tear away at the rock walls of said mine which looks more like a giant hole in the ground. Once said walls are torn down, the resulting rubble will be deposited into a truck and it will be sifted through later to find the coal that others need. There are advantages and disadvantages to each method though.

The advantage to coal mining at the surface is you can pay less people t have to do the job and you can get the job done much faster at the beginning. The problem is that with this method you’re basically taking down entire sections of rock, so for every piece of coal you get through this method, you get ten or twenty stones that are useless and you will end up throwing away. So though you can get a job finished fast and can manage to get a lot of work done at one time in one sitting, you’re going to need to make up for that speed later during the sifting process. You cannot use a lot of the rock you end up getting, so you have to spend a lot of time looking through it trying to find coal which will be worth your while. The advantage to mining in a network of tunnels is that you can be much more precise, you won’t bring to the surface anything you don’t want. But at the same time you will need to employ many men, and their searching can be very successful one day and not so much the next. It’s a real crapshoot.

Leave a Comment

Roughneck Definition

Roughneck Definition Assistant Mechanic

An assistant mechanic is responsible for the repair and maintenance of mechanical equipment, and the oil industry has plenty of places where they need assistant mechanics, for instance on drilling fields and on offshore oil rigs. Assistant mechanics can make as much as $55, 000 per year. They...

read entire definition