Underground High Volume Hydraulic Coal Mining. Volume II–Price River Coal Company Castlegate Mine

Details

• Personal Author:
  Heers RG
• Description:
  This report examines the technical and economic feasibility of hydraulically mining a 12- to 25-ft-thick coal lens in the a bed on the west side of Price River Coal Company, property in Carbon County, Utah. Although the coal is hard and strong and pitches only 7 deg to 8 deg, hydraulic mining at a rate of 1,154,000 tpy was determined to be highly feasible using an induced caving system, using strata and abutment pressures in a controlled manner in causing coal breaking in the retreat mining faces. The coal would be developed by continuous miners in widely spaced dual rooms driven up the full pitch. About 83% of the production would be extracted from pillars and top coal by hydraulic monitors in the rooms, supported by yieldable aluminum arches. In the average seam thickness of 20 ft, it was estimated that the tonnage mined form arched headings would constitute only 3.4% Of the total. Estimated average monitor production was over 1,500 tons per shift. The coal would be dewatered underground. Safety would be enhanced by controlling the roof and ribs with lightweight arches, remote controlled extraction of pillars and top coal, reduction of airborne dust, and positive ventilation of pillar faces. Both mining recovery and productivity would be improved over any other system used for such thick seams. With a selling price range of $25 to $35 per ton, free on rail, the estimated rate of return on the incremental capital of about $25 million would be 17% to 41%. Overall productivity would be 29.1 Clean tons of coal per employee-day. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Occupational Health Safety
• Series:
  Mining Publications
• Subseries:
  Open File Report
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Conference Publications ; Final Contract Report
• Place as Subject:
  OSHA Region 8 ; Utah
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  TCRC - Twin Cities Research Center
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  1-152
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:10007106
• Citation:
  For Reference Only At Bureau Libraries :152 pages
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  1983
• Performing Organization:
  B.c. Coal, Ltd, & Heers & Asso
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:5680e4e5011bd075c7c4d48285989b55035d09b7e6d483ac70f57ef264203eb56ed0d45e31645cd18aa760c99b7ff0ad835b3641d152686f0ff745099c1d2b48
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/235510/cdc_235510_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 5.37 MB ]