This site in WV used to be a mountaintop removal site but now they just do contour mining and auger mining. Instead of removing the entire mountain, they strip mine around the perimeter of the mountain leaving a "donut hole" in the middle, then they use augers to mine a portion of the coal in the remaining portion of the mountain. These augers can reach over 1,200 feet into the mountain. The Obama administration put a moratorium on mountaintop removal since removing the entire top of a mountain and burying a stream valley with it does tend to do a tad bit of environmental damage. The haul trucks in the pictures is a 320 ton truck if a recall and the demag has a 75 yard bucket.

Now that's my kind of job. The backhoe is a Hitachi 5500- 35yd. Trucks are 240t Komatsu 830E's. Nice pics, thanks for posting!

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Everyone's Goal is to Mine More Coal

Its only 35 yd and its a Hitachi, whats so exciting about that?

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"We don't look for any money all we look for is a little help and the only help we get is for the government to shut us down and if you go to the gas station and buy the gas you'll see why..........................you'll see why"

Well you do have a point there, its an Hitachi and not a Demag haha.

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Everyone's Goal is to Mine More Coal

Shut your mouth Mike! Hitachi makes good TVs.

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_______________________________________ www.pickandshovel.org "For Miners By Miners"