A superwall for super production

Journal Article · Sat Oct 01 04:00:00 EDT 1988 · Coal; (United States)

OSTI ID:6545879

Lucas, H H; McWilliams, K ^[1]

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1. American Electric Power Service Corp., Lancaster, OH (US)

Longwall mining at the American Electric Powers (AEP) Meigs division has been difficult because of the low seam and geologic complications. Even though the Meigs Reserves have serious geologic anomalies; there are still large blocks suitable for longwall mining. The large panels at Meigs are called superwalls because they contain more than twice as much coals as the mine's earlier 675-ft by 6,000-ft panels. Superwall panels can yield more than 2.5 million tons of raw coal annually. The superwall concept grew from a 865-ft face to a 954-ft face (a nominal width of 900 ft). The first 900-ft by 10,000-ft superpanel, or superwall, began operation in Feb. 1987, and finished in June 1988. Several criteria are necessary for the super longwall to succeed. These include efficient gate development and a sufficient number of entries to supply ventilation requirements. Using the 900-ft wide panel, it was found that these panels can best be developed with four entries using remote control deep-cut miners. All panels will be developed this way in the future. This paper discusses some major improvements made on the superwall methodology.

• OSTI ID: 6545879
• Journal Information: Coal; (United States), Journal Name: Coal; (United States) Vol. 25:10; ISSN COALE
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

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