Published in the December 2008 Coal USA Magazine
Amid the mountains of southern West Virginia in Drawdy sits a mining property that just one year ago was a bare patch of land – the home of Massey’s USS Randolph mine, operated by the producer’s subsidiary, Inman Coal.
There is no mistaking that this mine is just getting started on a bright future, with at least 50 million tons of recoverable reserves and a brand-new preparation plant.
Mining started at Randolph in February 2008, and in time its two active sections were hard at work pulling coal from this room and pillar operation. By April of next year a third continuous miner unit will join that fleet.
A 15-minute trip underground using one of the operator’s fleet of five Brookville mantrips will bring crews to the active sections which are working under a cutting height of 60 inches to cut the average 48in-high Eagle seam with no coal left behind. The mine is fairly shallow but not unique for Appalachia, with overburden ranging between 200ft and 800ft.
Randolph’s equipment fleet includes two Joy 15-14 continuous miners, two Fletcher RRII-13 roof bolters, two Fairchild 35XC scoops and a total of seven Joy SC 10SC32 shuttle cars (four on one section, three on the other). Coal transport infrastructure includes 48in Continental Conveyor beltline that is roof-hung and lined with Goodyear belt, running with a 2000tph capacity.
A separate 48in conveyor line is also ready for a future glory hole to accept coal from a future sister surface mine and convey both clean coal for direct ship or raw coal to be processed at Massey’s new 800tph Admiral preparation plant.
Massey chief operating officer Chris Adkins told Coal USA the mine’s equipment has been arriving on schedule and has not caused any logistical issues since development began. “We have not experienced any problems with equipment deliveries due to upper management’s decisions made back in 2007, as to expansion,” Adkins said.
The mine’s two active sections feature split ventilation, and its vent design includes a 6ft Joy blowing fan which produces about 225,000cfm. Methane is not an issue at the mine, officials noted, and no pre-drainage is necessary.
Despite the mine’s youth, crews have already found a groove, management said. Each section has an average advance rate of close to 300ft per shift and average daily output of 7000t raw, and no clearance issues are present.
Roof control is managed using a standard 4ft by 4ft spacing with 48in fully grouted resin bolts used and the company’s pizza pans added to protect it from draw rock. Thanks to a fairly stable roof, no rib bolting is required.
As the mine approaches its first birthday, it has already reached a full staff of 85 workers, 75 of them underground, working three nine-hour shifts. There have been no lost time accidents reported at the mine since production began.
This new operation has been paired with another recent addition to Massey’s asset portfolio – its new Admiral preparation facility. The plant, built between July and November 2008, began processing at 800tph starting November 24 and in 2010 will see about 12Mt raw.
Currently, its yield is expected to range between 35% and 40%. The facility uses heavy media vessel, heavy media cyclone, spiral and froth flotation for processing of the coal.
Coal arrives at the plant by conveyor and truck, and once cleaned and prepared is loaded into trucks with either a river barge or rail loadout destination.
Just one facet of a multi-million-dollar, multi-tiered expansion project by Massey Energy, the USS Randolph voyage is just beginning and management agrees it is off to an efficient, technologically sound start. With 12Mt of recoverable output and about 15 years of life ahead of it, the company also has big plans for the mine in the long term.
“The mine is being developed to provide a conveyor belt system that will convey coal from our Black Castle Strip to the Admiral processing plant … that will transfer not only raw coal but [also] direct ship material,” officials said.
