The Mountain Laurel mine began continuous miner development work in 2006, and officially commenced production on October 1, 2007. It is currently operating three development sections and one longwall section in the 6–7ft Alma seam.

Since longwall production began the mine has been producing more than 3500 tons (3175 tonnes) of coal per shift. It is expected that the Joy longwall system will produce more than 4 million tons of coal in 2008, compared to the 2Mt produced by continuous miner methods in 2007.

“One thing that did pleasantly surprise us was how quickly our production ramped up," mine manager Greg Dotson said.

“Our crews were averaging 25 feet of retreat per shift by the beginning of the second week of operation."

To smooth the transition from continuous haulage to longwall, Mingo Logan and Joy ran a training program specific to the Joy longwall mining system several months before the equipment went into service.

The longwall conveyor system has a capacity of 4000 tons per hour, while the Joy stage loader has an operating capacity of 4000tph and a surge capacity of 5200tph.

“In the first six months of operation the Mountain Laurel longwall has produced over 3.8 million raw tons and retreated the 1000-foot wide face over 9000 feet – not too bad for our first panel," longwall coordinator Jeff Roberts said.

When the current panel is completed the longwall shields will be moved to a new panel recently completed by Joy 14CM15 and 12CM12 continuous miners, while the 7LS2A shearer, the armoured face conveyor and stage loader will go in for rebuild. They will be replaced on the new panel, with the new 7LS2A to be equipped with Joy's FACEBOSS electronic control system.

“With the introduction of the new electronic control system on the shearer, and in combination with a seasoned longwall crew and experienced maintenance, service and support personnel, we believe the Mountain Laurel longwall is positioned to be a major producer for Arch Coal," Roberts said.

The Joy longwall system installed at Mountain Laurel comprises:

• 176 automated self-advancing 2X 1040 ton shields with Joy RS20s electronic controls;
• One 7LS2A 4000 volt, 600kW shearer – 530kW cutter motors and 80kW haulage motors – with a maximum cutting height of 11ft; and
• One UltraTrac 2000 haulage system featuring 39in raceway pans and 1.7in flat-link chain driven by a three 745kW transmission with turbo transmission technology couplings with flanged connections.