New Mountain Laurel Complex Successfully Installs State-of-the-Art JOY Longwall System
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The Mountain Laurel complex, part of Arch Coal's Mingo Logan Coal Company subsidiary, is a "greenfield site" in southern West Virginia that began continuous miner development work in 2006. Mountain Laurel officially commenced production on October 1, 2007 with the installation of a new and complete JOY longwall mining system.
"Underground production at Mountain Laurel is expected to increase from 2 million continuous miner development tons (1.8 million tonnes) in 2007 to more than 4 million tons (3.6 million tonnes) of clean coal in 2008 thanks to our longwall installation," said Mine Manager, Greg Dotson.
Since longwall production began, the new equipment has been averaging more than 3,500 tons (3,175 tonnes) per shift, almost exactly what was predicted, according to Dotson. "One thing that did pleasantly surprise us was how quickly our production ramped up," said Dotson. "Our crews were averaging 25 feet (8 metres) of retreat per shift by the beginning of the 2nd week of operation. This was due to the excellent coordination between Joy and Mountain Laurel, the execution by the Mountain Laurel team, and of course the design, workmanship and timeliness of equipment delivered by Joy."
Mingo Logan's Mountain Laurel complex is located in Logan County, about 55 miles (89 km) from Charleston, West Virginia. The mine operates three development sections and now a longwall section in the 6 to 7 foot (1.8 to 2.1 metre) Alma seam.
David Runyon, General Manager, credits the mine's successful longwall start-up to the excellent team work that exists at Mountain Laurel. "The longwall team has an exciting mix of experience and enthusiasm," said Runyon. "The old hands like Carl Lane and Delmer Bowman that transferred from the Ben Creek complex (the original Mingo Logan longwall operation) are great mentors for developing supervisors like Jeff Roberts, new Longwall Coordinator; Jason Frye, Operations Engineer; and Mark Kimler, Maintenance Planner. The majority of our longwall personnel transferred to Mountain Laurel from the Ben Creek operation, bringing with them a track record of excellent longwall operation in a wide variety of mining conditions.
"Though our workforce at Mountain Laurel had great longwall mining experience, the mine and Joy jointly conducted an extensive training program specific to the JOY longwall mining system several months before the equipment went into service," Runyon added.
Teamwork started immediately between the employees of Mingo Logan and Joy Mining Mining. Ron Vincent, Arch Coal's Manager of Purchasing for underground equipment, and Don Vickers, Mountain Laurel's Director of Process Improvement, have worked closely with Nick Pekar, Joy's Project Manager, through the entire selection and procurement process. The Mountain Laurel installation marks the first time in the U.S. where a complete longwall mining system was designed, manufactured, delivered and installed under the Joy Project Management Process (Joy PMP). According to Pekar, "the goal of Joy PMP is to ensure major equipment manufacturing contracts are fulfilled on-time, on-budget, on-spec and to the satisfaction of the customer, i.e., that what was promised is what has been delivered." The key to this system has been project coordination between Nick Pekar, Ron Vincent and Don Vickers.
The JOY longwall system is comprised of 176 automated self-advancing 2X 1,040 ton (945 tonne) shields with JOY RS20s electronic controls; a JOY 7LS2A 4,000 volt, 800 plus hp (600 kW) shearer- 711 hp (530 kW) cutter motors and 107 hp (80 kW) haulage motors-with a maximum cutting height of 11 feet (3.4 metres), together with a JOY UltraTrac 2000 haulage system featuring 39 inch (1,000 mm) raceway pans and l.7 inch (42 mm) flat-link chain driven by a three 1,000 hp (745 kW) transmission with Joy's exclusive turbo transmission technology (TTT) couplings with flanged connections.
The longwall conveyor system has a capacity of 4,000 tons per hour (3,628 tonnes per hour) while the JOY Stageloader, with its 1.5 inch (38 mm) flat-link chain, has an operating capacity of 4,000 tons per hour (3,628 tonnes per hour) and a surge capacity of 5,200 tons per hour (4,717 tonnes per hour).
"In the first six months of operation, the Mountain Laurel longwall has produced over 3.8 million raw tons (3.45 million tones), and retreated the 1,000-foot (305 metre) wide face over 9,000 feet (2,745 metres). Not too bad for our first panel," said Jeff Roberts, Longwall Coordinator.
Upon completion of the current panel this spring, Mountain Laurel will be moving the longwall shields to a new panel recently completed by JOY 14CM15 and 12CM12 continuous miners while the JOY 7LS2A shearer, the armored face conveyer and the stageloader will go in for rebuild. Those will be replaced on the new panel with new units, with the new 7LS2A shearer coming equipped with Joy's advanced 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 for the next decade," said Roberts.
