i all, i was cruising the net and wondered if there was a mining forum, and viola! here you were. so now i am new to you.

i am Mike Potts, mechanic/electrician for National Coal in stony fork, Tn

im sure you will be hearing from me often.

hey and welcome to the forum its always interesting to hear how others are working. the mine that myself, mike a. and banks on here work at only have 6 guys working underground so we are not a large operation at all. normally we put out 30-45 tons a day, its all mined by hand, drilled blasted and timbered. however we just started pulling from the mammoth which is just shy of 30 feet thick so those numbers should double soon! how large is the operation you mine at? welcome aboard!

chris

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Come over to the Dark Side....... We have Cookies!

WOW! yall earn you money! our company currently has 2 underground sites and numerous surface sites. the mine i work in has a Joy miner with long airdox bridges and crawlers, a fletcher twin and a single head pinners, 4 S&S scoops. i dont know tonnage, but we have been averaging between 300-350 ft per shift, running coal on 2 shifts. we are in the windrock seam on red oak mtn in anderson county TN. sounds like weve got it easy compared to yall.

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"cornbread and iced tea have took the place of pills and 90 proof."

are you saying the seam you are in is 30 ft tall??

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"cornbread and iced tea have took the place of pills and 90 proof."

ours is about 38-48" of coal with about 18" or draw rock.

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"cornbread and iced tea have took the place of pills and 90 proof."

Welcome UGMech. Do you know off hand how many miners work at your location?Has there been much layoffs or shut downs due to the econony down your way?

weve got about 35 men at our site and about 40 at the other UG site, i dont know about the surface jobs, but i understand the company has approx. 150 employees. as for layoffs, weve not had any due to the economy, but closing 2 old UG sites did get a handfull laid off recently.

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"cornbread and iced tea have took the place of pills and 90 proof."

the last mine i worked was shut down due to bad top. we tried 5 different panels and kept getting run out since we couldnt hold the top. used 4', 6' bolts plus 10', 12' rope bolts! it would fold the plates around the bolt heads, then drop the place! the company decided it wasnt worth the chances.

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"cornbread and iced tea have took the place of pills and 90 proof."

Welcome aboard UGMech!!!! It's neat to hear how other coal is mined around this country. Sounds like with all that underground equipment that your mines are pretty much horizontal seams. Good luck and watch your top!!!

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Scott K
"Watch Your Top"

thanks... yeah most of the UG mines around here are drift mines.

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"cornbread and iced tea have took the place of pills and 90 proof."

funny thing is i am originally from PA... bucks county area.

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"cornbread and iced tea have took the place of pills and 90 proof."

I see your a Hank Jr. fan!!! Country Boys come form the North also.

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Scott K
"Watch Your Top"

yeah buddy!

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"cornbread and iced tea have took the place of pills and 90 proof."

Where in Bucks county? My roommate in college was from Boyertown so I know the area.

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Scott K
"Watch Your Top"

ive lived in levittown, feasterville, newtown, fairless hills, neshaminy valley.

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"cornbread and iced tea have took the place of pills and 90 proof."