1. All pictures in this set were taken November of 2006 at the Black Beauty coal mine in Farmersburg, Indiana. 50 science teachers, including myself, spent 2 days at the mine. On day 1 we toured the mine and saw up close (almost too close!) from beginning to end how the whole operation runs. We went from place to place inside the mine on an old school bus. On day 2, mine workers and some from the State DNR showed us several great lessons we could take back to the classroom.
In the above photo we’re at the very beginning of the operation. A “shovel” is removing the topsoil.
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2. Loading topsoil into dump truck, which can hold about 20 tons
Loading topsoil into dump truck, which can hold about 20 tons. It is carefully placed in a spot where, at the end, it can be retrieved and put right back where it used to be.

3. Once topsoil and subsoil is removed, you’re down to rock- limestone (shown here). The coal is beneath this slab of limestone. Any guesses on the best way to remove it before looking at the next slide?

4. These 4 drillers drill 9 inch wide holes down through the limestone until they hit the coal, usually between feet deep.

5. Front view of driller. See that big nasty drill bit?

6. The drill bit used to dig holes.

7. The holes left by the drillers. Looks like moles.

8. A hole ready to be filled with explosives and charges
A hole ready to be filled with explosives and charges. When all of these go off they will fracture the limestone into small pieces which will then be scooped up.

9. Close-up of a charge

10. Which the blasting crew comes in to wire up with explosives.

11. This truck pulls up to each hole to deliver the explosive- ammonium nitrate with diesel fuel

12. Which has a pinkish color. See it going down into the hole?

13. The workers shovel a bit of limestone, add explosive, then also put in their charges, around 4 feet from where the coal is.

14. Before the charges detonate

15. The explosion sequence
The explosion sequence. This series took about 5 seconds, and went off from one side to the next. Had they all gone off at the same time a gas pipeline nearby might have ruptured.

16. See the smoke?

17. The stone is now loose, and the dragline moves in remove the fractured rock down to the coal. It was down for service on this day (actually in the middle of a 6 day service). Every minute it is not running costs the company $2,000.

18. “Old Glory” weighs 13.5 million pounds
It runs on all electricity, and literally has a thousand foot extension cord that runs across the mine to the power substation. Monthly electricity bill runs around $128,000
The rest of the equipment at the mine runs on diesel. So much that it take 2 tanker trucks a day delivering fuel to keep up with demand.
It was bought from Chinook mine in Brazil, Indiana in 2001 and “walked” the 19 miles across country to get here, which took 2 ½ months. It has 2 sets of feet plates, each 14 feet wide by 70 feet long it uses to drag itself forward. Never leaves the ground.

19. The very top of the boom is 330 feet.

20. And the bucket can hold 176 tons
And the bucket can hold 176 tons. All 50 people in the picture only take up the very front where the teeth are. I don’t know where I am.

21. Just to give you an idea of how big the bucket is.

22. The back side. Painted on it is it’s nickname- old glory

23. With the lime out of the way the coal miners now come in now and retrieve the coal.

24. Scooping coal at the north pit.

25. This shot is looking back over the stripped land
This shot is looking back over the stripped land. To the left you’ll see the soon-to-be claimed rock wall with the topsoil, subsoil, stone, and then the seam of coal.
This particular seam is only 44 inches deep. Imagine how valuable coal must be if we go through all the trouble of moving everything on top of just a 3 ½ foot tall section of it.

26. Right in the middle of the action
Right in the middle of the action. Stripped down the middle, stripped and filled back in to the right, and yet-to-be to the left.
Total acreage on this coal mine: 12,000 acres

27. Looking over a cliff. Standing on unstripped land looking down into stripped. The loose rock just blasted will be pushed as backfill into the previous pit. The reclamation process has begun.

28. Whatever cannot be filled by pushing in loosed rock from ahead is trucked in and bulldozed.

29. All the coal is trucked and dumped here, where about half of it is cleaned

30. Railcars next to the coal heaps waiting to be filled
Railcars next to the coal heaps waiting to be filled. Each holds exactly 100 tons. These rail car will travel 20 miles north to the Wabash Valley power plant. Other coal goes to Indianapolis. And few trucks carry coal to IU and Purdue for their small coal-fired plants.

31. Another view of the coal washing and processing area
Another view of the coal washing and processing area. In the background is the new Vigo County landfill. That area was mined out a few years ago, filled back in and reclaimed. It was ideal for this development because they could easily dig down through the loose dirt and rock. Surrounding the landfill is a 30 foot chain link fence to catch loose trash, which comes in from all over the state.

32. Coal-fired units produce electricity by burning coal in a boiler to heat water to produce steam. The steam, at tremendous pressure, flows into a turbine, which spins a generator to produce electricity. The steam is cooled, condensed back into water, and returned to the boiler to start the process over.
For example, the coal-fired boilers at TVA’s Kingston Fossil Plant near Knoxville, Tennessee, heat water to about 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit (540 degrees Celsius) to create steam. The steam is piped to the turbines at pressures of more than 1,800 pounds per square inch (130 kilograms per square centimeter). The turbines are connected to the generators and spin them at 3600 revolutions per minute to make alternating current electricity at 20,000 volts. River water is pumped through tubes in a condenser to cool and condense the steam coming out of the turbines.
The Kingston plant generates about 10 billion kilowatt-hours a year, or enough electricity to supply 700,000 homes. To meet this demand, Kingston burns about 14,000 tons of coal a day, an amount that would fill 140 railroad cars.

33. Reclaimed land. This was all mined years ago, now everything has been put back. Coal company, under closer supervision, has to leave things at least as good as they found it. This was all prime farm land, so when it’s reclaimed the proof that it’s back in shape is if it produces an average yield of corn, beans, or wheat 3 of 5 years. If not, they have to go back and fix it up better. We passed several corn and bean fields that the coal company had leased out to farmers that looked great. Once they’ve produced their 3 good crops, they get the bond back from DNR (which tends to run about $10,000 an acre). Total bond: 12,000 acres * $10,000 = $120,000,000
If the reclamation job is done the way its supposed to be, the only way you’d ever know there used to be a mine there is because the trees are very small. When they replant trees, there is a certain number by type they plant per acre. In the picture above, the mature trees you see in the background is where they started mining 10 years ago.
If the coal company owned the land, they sell it off in acre tracts to farmers and developers. If it was leased from a private landowner, the owner can negotiate things in they want done with the land (stream, lake, etc) that wasn’t there before.
Coal company’s before the 1976 act of reclamation didn’t have to clean up their messes, and that stereotype has held all these years. Only now after being in workshops for a day and another on mine property am I believing this for myself.
This mine has been in operation since July of it will close in about 5 years, and most workers will head 15 miles south when another mine opens. Actually, the way it was explained, as this mine (Black Beauty in Farmersburg, IN) winds down and yields less, the other will pick up, and total production will not slow.