Coal Geology

I always get excited visiting another deep coal mine. All coal mines are different, but still they all look almost the same. Well, my recent visit to Pine Ridge Coal Mine in west Virginia was an wonderful experience. Pine Ridge Coal mine is truly the best maintained deep mine I have been so far. The best part is their safety training. We spent more than an hour going over numerous safety issues, escape ways, how to use self rescuers, where to find rescuers in case of an accident and so on. They also have a very nice video that tells you all about the mine, their operations, preparation plant and more. Thick and nice Coalburg seam is good and flat with some minor undulations in the mine. In most of the places I have not noticed any wet floor problem. Only in the south section they have some wet and muddy floor. The mine is nicely covered with white rock dust. You will not feel like entering a dark, black coal mine at all. Also, I must say, this mine is the most well maintained and clean of all mines I have visited so far. Another great thing about the mine is that we have good mining height. I never had to bend down and crawl! Below are some of pictures of the mine, I put the link to the complete gallery above. Have a look and enjoy.

The Man Trips are entirely fancy and bigger than usual man-trips. It was the fastest among all man trips I have ever been inside a mine!

Fancy Man trip - with self rescuers.