Published July 1971 — Download PDF of the original newspaper column
Byrd's-Eye View By U.S. Senator Robert C. Byrd Improved Coal Mining Studied Research and development may revolutionize the nation's coal industry in the years ahead. The increasing demand for energy and the new emphasis on health and safety are stimulating the most extensive efforts ever made to improve coal mining methods and conditions in the mines. Consolidation Coal, Island Creek, and other big producers are pushing numerous studies of better ways to get coal out of the ground and better ways to protect coal miners. Joining in the efforts are manufacturers of mining equipment, various other concerns, and the U.S. Bureau of Mines. From almost nothing in 1969, the Bureau's spending for safety research jumped to $10 million in fiscal 1970 and $20 million in fiscal '71. It is expected to rise to $30 million in the current fiscal year. The objectives of this research are to eliminate--or at least to better control the hazards to which the coal miner is exposed, such as "black lung," roof falls, and explosions. A concomitant result is expected to be more efficient mining. Consolidation Coal Company is studying hydraulic mining. It seeks to determine th2 feasibility of cutting coal from seams underground with high pressure jets of water. Such a method would eliminate the coal dust incident to machine cutting, which causes pneumoconiosis and fuels mine explosions. Consol is also studying hydraulic transportation, utilizing moving water to bring coal out of a mine. Island Creek has made a study of "oxygen-free mining." Mines would be sealed and pumped full of nitrogen or carbon dioxide-or even be allowed to fill 100% with the methane gas normally present in coal mines, which would be non-explosive without oxygen. Miners would work in space-type suits, or life support equipment, with oxygen masks. Explosions and stream-polluting acid mine drainage, caused by elements in the coal reacting with oxygen, could be eliminated in this way. "High energy impact mining" is also being studied. This method would employ a device like a huge wedge-shaped hammer, on a mobile platform, which would fracture the coal from the seam and allow its removal in big lumps, cutting down on the dust spewed out by continuous miners and conventional cutting machines. Still other studies being made include remote-control cutting and loading machines. These would be maneuvered by operators using electronic sensors, laser beams, and gamma rays from safe areas back from the working face. And the possibility of taking the energy from coal by burning it in its underground seams is being investigated. No one knows which, if any, of these innovations may prove practical. But it is encouraging that such research is underway. JUL 28 1971