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High-pressure water may also be used as a source of energy to drive <br />mine machinery, fans, lights, and other facilities. This elimi- • <br />nates the need for some electrical equipment. <br />An integral part of hydraulic mining, in addition to the hydraulic <br />breaking and transportaCion of coal dewatering, is the surface <br />plant. The plant consists of installations for coal dewatering, <br />water clarification, and high-pressure pumping which recycles water <br />to the monitors. The surface plant for a hydraulic mine is of more <br />or less conventional design as only its size varies due to rates of <br />production and percentage of fines in the extracted coal. <br />Previous knowledge gained through conventional sublevel mining <br />regarding the strata behavior, developmental workings, or stoping <br />procedures has been incorporated into the present hydraulic ex- <br />traction method proposed for the Coal Ridge H1 Mine. The drilling <br />and blasting of long holes is replaced by hydraulic breakage of the <br />coal from the seam. Instead of conventional loading and handling <br />of coal, the resultant mixture of water and coal is hydraulically • <br />transported. <br />The essential difference between conventional and hydraulic mining <br />is that conventional uses blasting or mechanical cutting for <br />breaking coal where hydraulic mining uses coal erosion by high <br />pressure jets of water. <br />The integration of hydraulic technology with underground coal <br />mining makes it possible to borrow some elements from hard-rock <br />mining. The hard-rock mining system applied to mining thin and <br />pitching seams is particularly,sdaptable to mining steeply pitching <br />seams. The experience and philosophy developed in hard-rock mining <br />may be incorporated for successFul hydraulic mining of coal seams. <br />Hydraulic mining will revolutionize mining of thick, steeply <br />pitching seams similar to recant advances brought about by con- <br />NCIG - Coal Ridge #1 4-4 ABC/1145/910509 <br />