Laserfiche WebLink
Description of the Mine Operation Plan <br />Sizes of Permit Area, Disturbed Area, and Production Volumes <br />The permit area covers approximately 11,790 acres. Since mining began, cumulative disturbance <br />will total 441.88 acres by the end of this permit term (2009). The portion of the mine to be <br />permitted under the current application is projected to produce approximately 3,200,000 tons of <br />run-of-mine coal per year or 16,162 tons per day. <br />Mining Method <br />Coal is mined at the Deserado Mine using underground mining methods. BME previously <br />extracted coal from the B and D coal seams by utilizing both room and pillar, with pillar <br />extraction and longwall methods. Mining operations conducted during previous permit terms <br />have extracted the D Seam. D Seam mining was completed, and B Seam mining commenced in <br />1999, and will continue during the current permit term. The mine is developed by driving a <br />series of mains and sub-mains with continuous miners. These entries serve as the arteries for <br />coal conveying and ventilation. The mains and sub-mains, which will remain open for the life of <br />the mine, are supported by roof bolts. Additional support may include timbers, steel arches, steel <br />mats, steel mesh and shotcrete. <br />The room and pillar sections are laid out with a multiple-entry development system. A series of <br />rooms and crosscuts will then be mined from the main entries on a spacing to be determined by <br />prevailing geologic conditions. Coal will be cut by continuous miners. <br />At the completion of a panel of rooms, and if conditions allow, the intervening pillars will be <br />extracted, retreating towards the mains. The extraction of most of the pillar coal on the retreat <br />will result in caving of the roof some 50 to 100 feet behind the active mining area. Upon <br />completion of a room and pillar section, the caved area will be sealed off and protected with <br />adequate barrier pillars. <br />BME has designed the mining system to permit the optimum recovery of the coal reserves in the <br />safest and most economical manner. The mining system for the Deserado Mine is primarily the <br />longwall mining method. Some part of the deposit may be worked in the room and pillar, with <br />pillar extraction mining method. The areas close to the outcrop on the south of the mining area <br />were unsuitable for longwall mining due to the low overburden height. Room and pillar panels <br />RP-1 and RP-2 in the D Seam were excluded from longwall mining because the boundary <br />geometry did not allow longwall mining. <br />Coal Transportation and Processing Waste <br />Raw coal is transported out of the mine by conveyor to the D/B-Portal Area wash plant where the <br />coal is crushed and cleaned. The coal is then transported 3.1 miles to the rail loadout facility via <br />an over-land conveyor system. The coal is conveyed to the slot storage building, which can store <br />Deserado Mine 11 September 19, 2008