Tg Soda Ash, Inc. owned by Elf Aquitane used a shortwall mining system in Wyoming at a trona mine in the early 1980s to the late 1990s. It started with two shuttle cars, then added a loader, then a Klockner-Becorit continuous haulage unit similar to the crawler-veyor. It was 180 ft wide and panels were about a mine long, 1500 ft deep. Unfortunately, the stresses caused by mining caused the soft ground to move and fail, requiring considerable expense installing roof support and cutting floor. Ultimately, it could not compete with room and pillar mining. The entire mine was closed in 2001 due to high costs, was flooded and is now a solution mine.
How do you steer it? I'm a coal miner so I'm very curious.
Tg Soda Ash, Inc. owned by Elf Aquitane used a shortwall mining system in Wyoming at a trona mine in the early 1980s to the late 1990s. It started with two shuttle cars, then added a loader, then a Klockner-Becorit continuous haulage unit similar to the crawler-veyor. It was 180 ft wide and panels were about a mine long, 1500 ft deep. Unfortunately, the stresses caused by mining caused the soft ground to move and fail, requiring considerable expense installing roof support and cutting floor. Ultimately, it could not compete with room and pillar mining. The entire mine was closed in 2001 due to high costs, was flooded and is now a solution mine.
interesting