This weeks episode, we got a look at Tom Roberts starter castle.

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I don't have all the answers.
I don't even know all the questions!

Well I'm going to play the devils advocate here with the Tom Roberts house. When I started working in construction one of my mentors told me it's not a good sign if the owner of the company you work for is driving around in a ford escort and looking back at it he was right. The only thing I'm missing is how did they loose the coal vein?

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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"

It is a sign the owner is prosperous and has some means. And for all we know the house may be morgaged to pay for that re-built miner. And it takes a lot of money to open a mine.

But I find the contrast between management and miner to amusing.

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I don't have all the answers.
I don't even know all the questions!

in my time working for US and national coal, i was used to help develop the new faceups and start the new mines... for some reason it seemed to be the middle of winter EVERY STINKING TIME! talk about stiff nipples, yall know what the wind chill factor does to the temps in the winter... it does the same thing when your only underground a few breaks (anything less than 50).

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

Yes, UG mech every mine I have been involved with on start up was in the middle of winter. The Artic is not as cold! Mike, it is easy to lose the coal seam when you are cutting a lot of rock. If I had been the section foreman I would have went ahead and cleaned and bolted it and moved on to another cut to get some coal and then screwed around with it at the end of shift.

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

Coalfire, I take it if the vein rolls a little up or down you could lose it easily, in your experience when the vein rolls like that does it get thiner and does that usually happen if the vein is going under a hollow?

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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"

It can roll in the middle of a hollow Mike. Other than that there are no rhyme or reason to when it rolls.

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

The reason why I ask is because in the Northern Anthracite field the veins usualy but not always follow the surface contour pretty close. In the Southern Field there really is no ryhme or reason except a lot of times if the mountain changes the veins change pitch or are faulted.

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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"

Production resumed Monday.


CALGARY - Cobalt Coal Corp. announced Wednesday that production has resumed at its Westchester Mine in West Virginia after the completion of major repairs to a critical piece of equipment.

The Calgary-based metallurgical coal producer ((TSXV:CBT) said coal cutting resumed May 23 after repairs to Westchester's continuous miner.

Cobalt said a week ago that it expected a one- to two-week shutdown after the main shaft of the continuous miner severed the previous evening, causing the separation of the cutter heads from the machine.

The company's stock was up two cents, or 80 per cent, at 4.5 cents Wednesday morning on the TSX Venture market with more than 5.9 million shares traded.

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I don't have all the answers.
I don't even know all the questions!

sounds like a shear shaft broke??? but it must have been something else since a shear shaft shouldnt take more than 20 min to change. must have broke the head off or something.

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

Just watched the latest episode, it sure seems like the miners have finally had it with the mine operators. Everything is built on a shoe string and the wrong decisions are being made. Its good that they finally got the correct sized generator running, but how much money was wasted in lost production because of the undersized generator? Amazing..

Miner Greg

this mine is just up the road from me here....i guess there contractors for alpha, and all there coal comes here as well

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running a dragline is like fishing for salmon - according to E.Bella

They are not really contractors for Alpha per say, they own the coal and permit they just sale to Alpha. Most contract mines do not own the coal they just mine it for the company like alpha. What are you doing in that part of the country?

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

The Contractor Gig sounds like a deal for a small operator, if the mother company is willing to cut them a decent deal.

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I don't have all the answers.
I don't even know all the questions!

It used to be really sweet, Doug. The "mother" company as you call it would pay for the permit, face up, and even some cases provide roof bolts. AMCI which is who Alpha spawned from would even lease the equipment for so much a ton.

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