Shoemaker extracts from the prolific Pittsburgh 8 seam.

Shoemaker is of typical depth for the region, having 600-700ft of overburden. With one longwall panel and three continuous miner sections at press time, the three shifts of about 206 workers each are kept busy.

Until the longwall joins the 8 South CMs in 2012, workers continue the trek to the mine’s active 8 North sections, a 15,000ft trip which takes about 30 minutes aboard one of the mine’s Goodman and Eimco DC-powered rail mantrips. Once in the new area, the DC haulage will continue to be used but at some point will be transitioned to diesel units.

A Joy 7LS-1A shearer with 62in headgate and tailgate drum diameters powered by 710hp per arm glides along the Pittsburgh 8, passing 174 Bucyrus PM4 800-ton shields on passes that take about 45 minutes per cycle. Coal falls to the Bucyrus 1m face conveyor with Fenner Dunlop belt and 42mm Thiele chain moving at approximately 250ft/min. The headgate 1 and 2 are running at 750hp and the tailgate is powered at 800hp.

The BSL and crusher are both MTA/Bucyrus, with a 10-12in clearance range on the latter.

When Shoemaker readies for a longwall move, management creates a detailed plan for longwall recovery execution as well as safety of the workers involved.