The two Oaktown mines are separated by a sandstone channel. The coal seam thickness ranges from 4 feet to over 9 feet.

Underground mines are room and pillar mines meaning that main airways and transportation entries are developed and maintained while remote-controlled continuous miners extract coal from so-called rooms by removing coal from the seam, leaving pillars to support the roof. Shuttle cars or similar transportation are used to transport coal to a conveyor belt for transport to the surface.

Room and pillar mining is a non-subsidence plan for a mine, preserving the precious farmland above. It is among the safest and one of the most ecologically-friendly approaches to mining coal today, creating a non-subsidence environment (no movement of land) and maintaining clean water standards.

As the name indicates, large pillars of coal (40 feet wide) are left standing to help support the roof of the mine—more than half of the coal remains intact as supporting pillars to maintain the integrity of the surface land. The end result is a grid of open space (rooms) cleared by a continuous miner machine and separated by pillars. Once the coal is cleared and placed on a conveyor belt to our state-of the art surface wash plant, roof bolters enter the new area to secure the roof, inserting fully grouted 6-foot metal rods every four feet. At the wash plant, rock and debris are separated from the coal so that it can be cleansed of sulfur and other minerals in preparation for our customers.

Access to the Oaktown 2 mine is via an 80 foot deep box cut and a 2,600 foot slope on a 14 percent grade, reaching coal in excess of 400 feet below the surface.

The Oaktown delivery system includes two heavy media wash plants on-site, with a capacity for 1600 tph and a 110-car double-rail loop.