Our
primary source of raw coal is from our Jeddo Basin - East
stripping located near Hazleton, PA. This site was previously
affected by underground and surface mining that began
over 100 years ago.
Drilling
& Blasting
The soil overburden is first
stripped from the mining area with a D-11 dozer and a
combination of heavy off-road trucks and loaders. Then,
our Bucyrus-Erie 61-R drill drills numerous 13-3/4”
holes about 200’-220’ deep to the very surface
of the coal. The holes are loaded with explosives and
detonated.
Blasted
rock is excavated from the pit using our primary excavator,
the 8700 Marion dragline which has an 85 cubic yard bucket.
This machine can excavate and move over 100 tons of rock
over 600 feet with each cycle. Once the overburden is
removed coal is extracted from the 30’+ thick Mammoth
coal vein using the same machine. The freshly mined coal
is then loaded into Wabco 120 ton haul trucks by a Cat
992-C loader. Finally, the trucks transport the coal to
a stockpile at the Jeddo #8 Preparation Plant. The Bucyrus-Erie
1450 Dragline, a 65 cubic yard machine, moves the excess
overburden away from the primary excavator. Our company
also possesses a Bucyrus-Erie 1250 Dragline that serves
as a backup machine.
Reclamation
After
the material from the pit is handled by the pull-back
machine, dozers and graders level the ground and prepare
it for planting. The area will then be reclaimed by seeding
and planting trees, thus restoring the property to a condition
better than before it was mined.