Published in the March 2009 Coal USA Magazine

Pulling from the Coalburg seam, the new Kelley’s Creek mine was developed as a belt tunnel and will include two portals, one from each end. The total length of infrastructure for the line is 18,308 feet from the operation to the Mammoth preparation plant.

At Left Fork, excavation work started last February and was completed in October 2008 for an overland belt system stretching from Coalburg to the Rich Hollow Shadrick mine. The 5145ft belt was installed by local firm Powell Construction.

According to management, Massey’s future plans and its transportation needs were the main impetus for the project. “It was necessary to get 250 trucks per day off public roads, and allow expansion of the existing mines,” Mammoth Coal president Dave Hughart said.

At Stockton, crews worked to rehabilitate the mine at the same time its beltline was enhanced and updated. All work was completed by in-house employees, and the belt installed totaled 20,300ft.

Finally, the tail-end of the overland belt system at its Cross Hollow operation saw recent work, after historically poor coal flow began to lead to downtime issues with the line. Aside from rehabilitating its feeder system at the 2 North area, it also replaced about 4000ft of belt to increase production.