Coal Geology » Pocahontas http://coalgeology.com Mining, Clean Energy, Going Green to Climate Change Mon, 14 May 2012 18:09:49 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 Pocahontas Underground Coal Mine in West Virginia http://coalgeology.com/pocahontas-underground-coal-mine-in-west-virginia/10684/ http://coalgeology.com/pocahontas-underground-coal-mine-in-west-virginia/10684/#comments Sun, 09 Jan 2011 04:47:06 +0000 Editor http://coalgeology.com/?p=10684 January 8th, 2010 (Coal Geology) The Pocahontas Mine is an underground coal mine located near Rupert, West Virginia, in Greenbrier County, West Virginia.  The mine employs 74 underground coal miners and 11 surface personnel.  The mine has two active mining sections with two continuous mining machines on each section, which operate simultaneously with split ventilation.  The room and pillar method of mining is utilized at this mine.  The mine is operated in the Pocahontas No. 6 bituminous coal seam, accessed by five drift portals.  The mining height is approximately seven feet.  The mine produces approximately 3,162 raw tons per day during two production shifts, day and afternoon, with a midnight shift for maintenance.

The principal officers for the mine at the time of the accident were:

Larry Roop……………………………………………………………………………….. General Manager
Steve Redden………………………………………………………………………………. Superintendent
Teddy Alderman………………………………………………………………………….. Mine Foreman
David O’Dell………………………………………………………………………………… Safety Director

Prior to the accident, the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) had completed the last regular safety and health inspection (E01) on June 17, 2010.  The Non-Fatal Days (NFDL) injury incidence rate for the mine in 2009 was 7.49, compared to the National NFDL rate of 4.04.

]]> http://coalgeology.com/pocahontas-underground-coal-mine-in-west-virginia/10684/feed/ 1 Potential Bad Roof conditions in an underground coal mine in West Virginia http://coalgeology.com/potential-bad-roof-conditions-in-an-underground-coal-mine-in-west-virginia/25/ http://coalgeology.com/potential-bad-roof-conditions-in-an-underground-coal-mine-in-west-virginia/25/#comments Thu, 13 Dec 2007 22:56:49 +0000 Editor http://coalgeology.com/2007/12/13/potential-bad-roof-conditions-in-an-underground-coal-mine-in-west-virginia/ Poor roof rock conditions in an underground coal mine.

Just few days back I had a trip to an underground mine in West Virginia. They were mining Pocahontas 3 coal seam. P-3 seam is quite thick in that area and it is a good quality coal too. However they have serious problem with poor roof rock conditions. Many reasons control the stability of roof strata of a coal seam. Drilling and detailed geologic and geotech logging usually performed along with fracture logging to evaluate the stability of both roof and fllor rock within the permit area. Usually multiple drill holes are used for the analysis. Even after that, we can atill have local poor rock conditions due to local faults, folds, change in lithology and so on. Typically in this mine, they had differencial pressure difference betweeh soft shale unit and heavier sandy unit above. The differential compaction produced numerous slikensides in the roof strata making it very unstable roof rock. Along with that, a think rider seam is continueously present slightly above the P-3 coal seam too. Here are some pictures taken in the mine. Feel how it is underground!

Bolts Holding the Roof Rock of a coal Mine.

Under Ground Coal Mine in Operation

Folds at the immediate roof of coal seam. A very rare occurrence. Usually the coal seams are tend to be flat with local low angle folds and faults.

Nice Fossils at the Roof Rock of an Underground Coal Mine

Fossils at the roof an underground coal mine

Ring of coal spar at the immediate roof causing rock fall

Massive Hard sandstone roof – that is what every body wants. Solid and nice.

Sandstone with sharp contact with coal seam – this is what we want! But if you are interpreting coal seam from E-log, you may have some trouble. I will discuss in future in case you need to know.

Slikensided Shaley Roof immediately above a coal seam – This is one example of poor roof. More slikensides you have, poor the roof is with more chances of rockfall.

Slikensided shaley roof supported by roof bolts and wires. – sometime we also cement the roof to avoid rockfall.

Thick, Clean, Soft Pocahontas 3 Coal Seam – check out the nice looking thick Pocahontas 3 coal seam. No pyritic material visible on eye. Great looking coal seam with nice banding.

General look of an Underground Coal Mine – Look how it is at underground!

]]> http://coalgeology.com/potential-bad-roof-conditions-in-an-underground-coal-mine-in-west-virginia/25/feed/ 0 Pocahontas Exhibition Coal Mine, VA http://coalgeology.com/pocahontas-exhibition-coal-mine-va/9/ http://coalgeology.com/pocahontas-exhibition-coal-mine-va/9/#comments Thu, 04 Oct 2007 02:29:19 +0000 Editor http://coalgeology.com/?p=9 Pocahontas Exhibition Coal Mine, VA
Contact
Town of Pocahontas
Centre Street
Post Office Box 128
Pocahontas, Virginia 24635-0128

A short history of Pocahontas Mine can be found .
More information can be found

Recently I have visited the old coal town and the exhibition mine. Please click on the picture below to see some picture I took during my visit.

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