How To Open A U/G Coal Mine.

Mike A · **Posted:** Wed Mar 23, 2011 4:19 am

Thats the beauty of Schuylkill County your not stuck only with Reading. You have a hole slew of private landowners that will gladly give GOOD leases on coal tracts and a hole slew of independant breakers that will pay top dollar for your run of mine. Hell Schuylkill county itself has coal tracts that it will lease out as do alot of the water authoritys down there.

50tonloco · **Posted:** Thu Mar 24, 2011 11:13 am

And we wont even get into the tree hugging bastards.

you should just get them to like coal minig and trains so they would leave you alone

....wait, not going to happen unfortentily

Doug · **Posted:** Tue Mar 29, 2011 3:42 pm

BUMP!!

We can't let a good Illinois Basin Thread die just yet.

Beside I have ulterior motives and a 5000/3 that needs used. :twisted:

12lbBass · **Posted:** Sun Apr 10, 2011 2:49 am

No we sure dont want it to die.

Has much been done in the area of methane recovery or methane processing?

Suppose you could operate in such a manner that the mine is left suitable for methane recovery and processing.

And what about the part where you said:

"Beside I have ulterior motives and a 5000/3 that needs used".

Im curious.

Doug · **Posted:** Sun Apr 10, 2011 9:08 pm

I have not heard much on methane recovery. I have heard that there was some research at Indiana University on using bacteria to generate methane from coal underground.

I would think there would be a way to strip methane from the discharge air. But I have never heard of this being done.

On the other subject... well a 5000/3 is a MSHA form. Then again... it may not be good in Kentucky. You have some pretty tight rules.

12lbBass · **Posted:** Wed Apr 13, 2011 12:55 pm

I was wondering what the possibility of setting up a small one unit mine in such a manner that after each section could be mined in a way that methane could be extracted and transported out in a similar manner as natural gas.

The trouble we have in Kentucky is the number of earth worshipping fools that have gone to college and recevied degrees that allowed them to gain employment in areas where it is easy for them to push their green agendas. Just here recently the governor fired the key individual who was responsible for issuing the new mine permits because the guy was deliberately backlogging and losing all the paperwork. Two whole years of mine permits filed and none of them properly processed. The mine operators had "worked out" what was already permitted and proceeded with written agreements from the land owners. The choice was to either proceed with mining or lay everybody off and send them home so they proceeded with mining. Then this fool who refused to issue the permits proceeded to call the news media and report that these "BIG CORPORATE HOT SHOTS" were stealing coal form these poor little defenseless land owners. This did not set well with the governor, landowners, local / county politicans and the miners so the governor fired him.

Chris · **Posted:** Wed Apr 13, 2011 3:39 pm

i think coal mining is alot like aviation...... if you want to end up with a million dollars in avaition, start with 2.

Doug · **Posted:** Wed Apr 13, 2011 8:07 pm

You mean start with 2,000,000. It took a couple of readings to get the point.

Doug · **Posted:** Wed Apr 13, 2011 8:12 pm

It is common to seal-off sections of a bitty mine after they are worked out. While reentry is prohibited, it might be possible to evacuate the built up gas. The easiest way might be to drill a well from the surface into the old works.

That method of entry would be safer than pumping or working in the active mine works.

Doug · **Posted:** Wed Apr 13, 2011 8:18 pm

A second thought if methane recovery is a major interest, find an old mine and drill a well into the workings. The hard part might be to locate accurate maps and hit an entry or crosscut as opposed to hitting the remaining blocks of coal.

12lbBass · **Posted:** Fri May 20, 2011 3:24 pm

Methane recovery by drilling into old works would be impossible in the West Ky area due to all the old works are pretty much filled with water. If a person could mine small sections with one single entry and one single return and with one single line of pillars between the entry and return then methane might could be sucessfully pulled from the section. Something like this could be easily pumped to control the water level.

Mike A · **Posted:** Fri May 20, 2011 6:13 pm

I personaly think that MSHA wont let you evacuate the gas from the old workings. What mine operator in there right mine would seal off a section of a mine and let the gas build up if MSHA would let you evacuate it? I'm pretty sure MSHA's stance on the matter is they want that gas back there to build up to the point that it's no longer explosive.

Doug · **Posted:** Fri May 20, 2011 7:47 pm

Valid point. Unless you can pump off part of the gas without dropping into the explosive range. Or add an inert gas like nitrogen or CO2.

Mike A · **Posted:** Fri May 20, 2011 9:13 pm

or ventalate your old works to the best of your ability

rail haulage miners · **Posted:** Sat May 21, 2011 5:14 am

Active mines that have to go through the old sections of the mines are required to pump in Nitrogen to dissipate the gas build up. Mike A is correct that there is no way that MSHA will allow a build up then pump it out since it is an explosive gas in a confined space.

How To Open A U/G Coal Mine.

Who is online