Date: Wed, 19 Nov 1997 23:33:04 GMT Server: NCSA/1.5.2 Last-modified: Mon, 24 Feb 1997 22:16:23 GMT Content-type: text/html Content-length: 5113 The Coal Industry

Coal is mined in 32 states, seven of which account for 81 percent of the country's reserves. The three major U.S. coal regions consist of Appalachia (West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Eastern Kentucky, and Ohio), the Illinois Basin (Illinois, Indiana and Western Kentucky) and the Powder River Basin (Wyoming and Montana).

General observations can be made about the coal and coal mining methods for each of these regions. Appalachian mines are both surface and underground, with coal that tends to be high in energy content and low in sulfur. Illinois Basin mines are generally underground, yielding coal that is high in energy content but also high in sulfur. Powder River Basin coal is generally mined from the surface and the coal, while often lower in energy content, is known for its particularly low sulfur content. Zeigler subsidiaries have major operations and reserves in all three coal producing regions.

Technology's impact on coal mining has been most significant in the mining process itself. The most visible impact of technology is that modern machines have largely replaced manual labor in coal mines. Consequently, the coal miner has become, for the most part, an operator of highly sophisticated equipment and someone whose knowledge we value in improving mining processes - in stark contrast with the manual laborer of the industry's past.

The coal mining work force of the 1990s is compensated based on their skill levels. Industry-wide annual wages average $38,000, and many miners make considerably more through overtime productions bonuses. Most are covered by extensive health and pension benefits.

Mining is also safer today than it has ever been. In fact, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, it is safer to work in a coal mine than in 20 other industries, including transportation, durable-goods manufacturing, construction, farming, and even retailing. In the past quarter century, fatalities relating to coal mining have declined 80 percent while production has nearly doubled.

Modern Coal

While you are shedding images, discard your perception of picks and shovels. They long ago gave way to a new breed of gargantuan equipment that roams coal seams in a historic echo of the dinosaurs that once prowled the same geology. Coal mining in the 1990s has evolved into a modern, high-tech business. Heavily computerized equipment. Dragline rigs outlined against the skyline. Conveyors snaking 9,000 feet down a mountainside. Coal trucks towering 15 feet over the nearest worker, that's mining today... the marriage of an abundant natural resource and technology.

Today's state-of-the-art equipment generally falls into several different categories. Two types are for underground use - longwall and continuous mining equipment - while draglines and truck-and-shovel methods are used for surface mining operations.

The mines where this equipment is used do not look much like the images of old, either. In today's underground mine, the walls are white, covered with a lime coating that prevents coal dust. Constant fresh air flows steadily through the mine, moved by huge ventilation fans on the surface. Personal protective equipment is widespread: hard-hats, steel-toed boots, hearing protection, air purifying systems and high intensity lamps are standard issue.

Zeigler views mining as a temporary use of the land. When a mine's economically recoverable reserves have been depleted, Zeigler returns the land and water to as good, or better, condition as before mining.

Since 1974, the U.S. coal industry has reclaimed more than two million acres of land - an area larger than the state of Delaware.

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