Friday, 13 February 2009

Utah mine to avoid 'bounces' with remote controls

Paul Foy - The Associated Press

A Utah coal operator has agreed to operate a longwall mining machine by remote control to resolve federal regulators' concerns over an underground implosion that injured a worker.

The change marked a new use of wireless technology that lets operators slice into a wall of coal from about 125 feet away, keeping them a safe distance from mountain "bounces" that have recently troubled the West Ridge mine near Price.

A bounce is a seismic jolt that can propel lethal chunks of coal at miners.

The Mine Safety and Health Administration shut down the longwall operation Jan. 31 when flying chunks of coal from a bounce broke some ribs of a foreman and collapsed one of his lungs. The operation resumed a week later on Sunday by remote control, said Kevin Stricklin, head of coal mine safety for MSHA.

"We need to start working in this direction," Stricklin said Thursday of technology his agency is urging coal operators to adopt. "It isn't like the way it used to be. We need to move forward with new technology. We're concerned about mine safety."

The step was taken by West Ridge Resources Inc., an affiliate of Murray Energy Corp., a corporate owner of the Crandall Canyon mine, where a massive collapse in 2007 left six miners entombed inside.

At the same time, Murray Energy dropped an appeal of MSHA's shutdown order that was to have been heard by an administrative judge on Thursday.

MSHA lawyers say the remote-control option wasn't part of any settlement, that Murray Energy surrendered its appeal without condition, and that the remote operation is "by no means a permanent fix," agency spokeswoman Amy Louviere said.

Stricklin said the agency plans to reevaluate safety conditions at West Ridge after it finishes mining a section of the longwall panel where the foreman was injured.

Representatives at Murray Energy had no comment on any changes at West Ridge mine.

Stricklin said West Ridge was hit by mountain bounces twice last month before a third one Jan. 31 resulted in an injury. Bounces, also called bumps, occur thousands of times a year in Utah's deep coal mines because of the enormous weight of mountains bearing down on them.

West Ridge is mining as deep as 2,500 feet under the surface, Stricklin said.

In May, Murray Energy subsidiary UtahAmerican Energy Inc. shut down its 2,750-foot-deep Tower mine, which the company called the deepest in the U.S., because of "unusual stress conditions" on mine pillars.

Based in Pepper Pike, Ohio, Murray Energy is the country's largest family-owned independent coal producer. The company arrived in Utah in 2006 when it bought four worked-over coal mines in central Utah plus the rights to a rich coal seam at Lila Canyon in Emery County, where it plans to mine up to 4 million tons a year.

At Crandall Canyon, Murray Energy affiliate Genwal Resources Inc. became partners with Intermountain Power Agency, a power station in Delta that is the state's single-biggest consumer of coal, according to the Utah Geological Survey.

Crandall Canyon has remained closed since the Aug. 6, 2007 collapse.

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