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Chapter II <br />There are two storage areas, one for B-bed raw coal, the other for M-bed raw coal. <br />• The coal from each seam is kept strictly segregated. Presently the coal is stored in <br />open stockpiles. However, the raw coal will be stored in underground bunkers with <br />the continuation of our modernization program. <br />Coal is "reclaimed" from the stockpiles to conveyor belts which run through buried <br />12' steel pipes. The belts convey the raw coal to storage bins. belt to the wash <br />plant. <br />The coal is carried, again on covered conveyor belts, from the raw coal storage <br />bins to the preparation plant. <br />At the preparation plant, rock and refuse materials are removed from the coal by <br />gravity separation methods and froth floatation. After cleaning, the coal is thermally <br />dried and placed in clean coal storage bins. <br />There are four clean coal bins. As throughout the process, in clean coal storage, the <br />coal from each of the two seams mined is strictly segregated. <br />The clean coal is measured, from the clean coal storage bins, onto a collection belt <br />which carries to the "blending bin." Ratio weigh feeders at the bottom of each clean <br />coal storage bin allow Mid-Continent to control the proportion of coal from either <br />seam which is loaded into the blending bin. In that way, customer specifications for <br />• coal from either or both seam can be met. <br />The blended coal is stored in a clean-coal bin, from which it's loaded onto trucks <br />which transport it to the load-out facility at Carbondale, approximately 23 miles <br />away. <br />At the load-out, the coal is transferred from the trucks to the train load-out storage <br />bins, and in turn carried to the train loading tipple on belt conveyors. From the <br />tipple, it's loaded on the trains. <br />The rock and other impurities separated from the salable coal is transported from <br />the wash plant to the refuse disposal area on a conveyor belt, which is also covered <br />for dust control. This belt also is turned after the coal is unloaded to the refuse pile, <br />so as to prevent coal particles from falling on the ground beneath the conveyor. <br />b. Mine Entries #3, #4, #5. <br />To complete work on the Adit/Rock Tunnel lateral extensions must be made to the <br />workings of Entries #3,#4 and #5. At the time of permit submittal, (December, <br />1987) these are inactive, due to constrained demand for coal. <br />• <br />37 <br />