Coal mining is the process of extracting coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from iron ore and for cement production. In the United Kingdom and South Africa, a coal mine and its structures are a colliery, a coal mine is called a 'pit', and the above-ground structures are a 'pit head'. In Australia, "colliery" generally refers to an underground coal mine.
A tunnel boring machine (TBM), also known as a "mole", is a machine used to excavate tunnels with a circular cross section through a variety of soil and rock strata. They may also be used for microtunneling. They can be designed to bore through anything from hard rock to sand. Tunnel diameters can range from one metre (3.3 ft) to 17.6 metres (58 ft) to date. Tunnels of less than a metre or so in diameter are typically done using trenchless construction methods or horizontal directional drilling rather than TBMs. TBMs can also be designed to excavate non-circular tunnels, including u-shaped or horseshoe and square or rectangular tunnels.
Longwall mining is a form of underground coal mining where a long wall of coal is mined in a single slice. The longwall panel is typically 3–4 km (1.9–2.5 mi) long and 250–400 m (820–1,310 ft) wide.
A bucket-wheel excavator (BWE) is a large heavy equipment machine used in surface mining.
Underground soft-rock mining is a group of underground mining techniques used to extract coal, oil shale, potash, and other minerals or geological materials from sedimentary ("soft") rocks. Because deposits in sedimentary rocks are commonly layered and relatively less hard, the mining methods used differ from those used to mine deposits in igneous or metamorphic rocks. Underground mining techniques also differ greatly from those of surface mining.
The South Wales Coalfield extends across Pembrokeshire, Carmarthenshire, Swansea, Neath Port Talbot, Bridgend, Rhondda Cynon Taf, Merthyr Tydfil, Caerphilly, Blaenau Gwent and Torfaen. It is rich in coal deposits, especially in the South Wales Valleys.
Landfill mining and reclamation (LFMR) is a process which excavates and processes solid wastes which have previously been landfilled. The process aims to reduce the amount of landfill mass encapsulated within the closed landfill and/or temporarily remove hazardous material to allow protective measures to be taken before the landfill mass is replaced. In the process, mining recovers valuable recyclable materials, a combustible fraction, soil, and landfill space. The aeration of the landfill soil is a secondary benefit with regard to the landfill's future use. The combustible fraction is useful for power generation. The overall appearance of the landfill mining procedure is a sequence of processing machines laid out in a functional conveyor system. The operating principle is to excavate, sieve and sort the landfill material.
Chatterley Whitfield Colliery is a disused coal mine on the outskirts of Chell, Staffordshire in Stoke on Trent, England. It was the largest mine working the North Staffordshire Coalfield and was the first colliery in the UK to produce one million tons of saleable coal in a year.
Frickley & South Elmsall Colliery was opened by the Carlton Main Colliery Company Ltd in 1903 in South Elmsall, in Yorkshire, England.
The South Waratah Colliery was a coal mine located at Charlestown, in New South Wales Australia.
Dream is a 2009 sculpture and a piece of public art by Jaume Plensa in Sutton, St Helens, Merseyside. Costing approximately £1.8m, it was funded through The Big Art Project in coordination with the Arts Council England, The Art Fund and Channel 4.
The Meco-Moore cutter loader was an early twentieth-century British mining machine. It was invented by Mr M. Moore, and developed by the Mining Engineering Company (MECO) of Worcester. It was a heavy machine and was first used in a coal mine in Lancashire, England 1934. The design was such that it worked along the coal seam The machine's cutter bars, the "jibs" as they were called, were designed to both shear and undercut the coal seam. The cut coal was cut onto the connected conveyor belt system which took it towards the mine's entrance. It was, or was among, the first such machines to do both cutting and loading at the same time. The machine increased both productivity and safety.
Joy Global Inc. was a company that manufactured and serviced heavy equipment used in the extraction and haulage of coal and minerals in both underground and surface mining. The company had manufacturing facilities in Alabama, Pennsylvania, Texas, Wisconsin, Australia, Canada, China, France, South Africa and the United Kingdom. In 2017, Joy Global was acquired by Komatsu Limited and was renamed Komatsu Mining Corp.
The Lancashire Coalfield in North West England was an important British coalfield. Its coal seams were formed from the vegetation of tropical swampy forests in the Carboniferous period over 300 million years ago.
Markham Main Colliery was a coal mine in Armthorpe, on the eastern edge of Doncaster, South Yorkshire, England. It could be seen, and was a landmark, from the nearby M18.
Bradford Colliery was a coal mine in Bradford, Manchester, England. Although part of the Manchester Coalfield, the seams of the Bradford Coalfield correspond more closely to those of the Oldham Coalfield. The Bradford Coalfield is crossed by a number of fault lines, principally the Bradford Fault, which was reactivated by mining activity in the mid-1960s.
Wheldale Colliery was a coal mine located in Castleford, Yorkshire, England which produced coal for 117 years. It was accessed from Wheldon Road.
Optimisation of cutting cycles in conventional underground coal sections to improve productivity is an area of study on the utilisation of machines in conventional underground coal sections.
The Huwood Power Loader was mechanical device of roughly 6 ft by 2 ft by 1 ft dimensions and powered by a 10 hp engine, used to move cut coal from the coal face on to the conveyor. The machine was equipped with winches which used haulage ropes to drag the machine along the coal face and used both horizontal and rotary motions to shift the coal onto the conveyor. Pleasley Colliery, Derbyshire introduced one of the first such loaders in 1950.
Hapton Valley Colliery was a coal mine on the edge of Hapton near Burnley in Lancashire, England. Its first shafts were sunk in the early 1850s and it had a life of almost 130 years, surviving to be the last deep mine operating on the Burnley Coalfield.
