Longwall mining

Longwall mining

Longwall mining is a form of underground

coal mining where a long wall of coal is
mined in a single slice (typically 0.6–1.0 m
thick). The longwall panel (the block of
coal that is being mined) is typically 3–
4 km long and 250–400 m wide.

History

Plan of longwall mine before conveyors – the hoist is

at the center of the central pillar.

The basic idea of longwall mining was

developed in England in the late 17th
century. Miners undercut the coal along
the width of the coal face, removing coal
as it fell, and used wooden props to
control the fall of the roof behind the face.
This was known as the Shropshire method
of mining.[1] While the technology has
changed considerably, the basic idea
remains the same, to remove essentially
all of the coal from a broad coal face and
allow the roof and overlying rock to
collapse into the void behind, while
maintaining a safe working space along
the face for the miners.
 West Virginia
retreating
Oklahoma longwall mine
advancing c. 1917
longwall mine
c. 1917; arrows
show airflow

Starting around 1900, mechanization was

applied to this method. By 1940, some
referred to longwall mining as "the
conveyor method" of mining, after the
most prominent piece of machinery
involved.[2] Unlike earlier longwall mining,
the use of a conveyor belt parallel to the
coal face forced the face to be developed
along a straight line. The only other
machinery used was an electric cutter to
undercut the coal face and electric drills
for blasting to drop the face. Once
dropped, manual labor was used to load
coal on to the conveyor parallel to the face
and to place wooden roof props to control
the fall of the roof.

Such low-technology longwall mines

continued in operation into the 1970s. The
best known example was the New
Gladstone Mine near Centerville, Iowa,
"one of the last advancing longwall mines
in the United States".[3] This longwall mine
did not use a conveyor belt, instead relying
on ponies to haul coal tubs from the face
to the slope where a hoist hauled the tubs
to the surface.[4][5]

Longwall mining has been extensively

used as the final stage in mining old room
and pillar mines. In this context, longwall
mining can be classified as a form of
retreat mining.

Layout
Gate roads are driven to the back of each
panel before longwall mining begins. The
gate road along one side of the block is
called the maingate or headgate; the road
on the other side is called the tailgate.
Where the thickness of the coal allows,
these gate roads have been previously
developed by continuous miner units, as
the longwall itself is not capable of the
initial development. The layout of Longwall
could be either "advancing" type or of
"retreat" type. In the advancing type, the
gate roads are formed as the coal face
advances. In thinner seams the advancing
longwall mining method may be used. In
the retreat type, the panel is a face
connecting them both. Only the maingate
road is formed in advance of the face. The
tailgate road is formed behind the coal
face by removing the stone above coal
height to form a roadway that is high
enough to travel in. The end of the block
that includes the longwall equipment is
called the face. The other end of the block
is usually one of the main travel roads of
the mine. The cavity behind the longwall is
called the goaf, goff or gob.[6]

Ventilation
Typically, intake (fresh) air travels up the
main gate, across the face, and then down
the tail gate, known as 'U' type ventilation.
Once past the face the air is no longer
fresh air, but return air carrying away coal
dust and mine gases such as methane,
carbon dioxide, depending on the geology
of the coal. Return air is extracted by
ventilation fans mounted on the surface.
Other ventilation methods can be used
where intake air also passes the main gate
and into a bleeder or back return road
reducing gas emissions from the goaf on
to the face, or intake air travels up the tail
gate and across the face in the same
direction as the face chain in a homotropal
system.[7]

To avoid spontaneous combustion of coal

in the goaf area, gases may be allowed to
build up behind seals so as to exclude
oxygen from the sealed goaf area. Where a
goaf may contain an explosive mixture of
methane and oxygen, nitrogen
injection/inertisation may be used to
exclude oxygen or push the explosive
mixture deep into the goaf where there are
no probable ignition sources. Seals are
required to be monitored each shift by a
certified mine supervisor for damage and
leaks of harmful gases.

Equipment
Hydraulic chocks

A number of hydraulic jacks, called

powered roof supports, chocks or shields,
which are typically 1.75 m wide and placed
in a long line, side by side for up to 400 m
in length in order to support the roof of the
coalface. An individual chock can weigh
30–40 tonnes, extend to a maximum
cutting height of up to 6 m and have yield
rating of 1000–1250 tonnes each, and
hydraulically advance itself 1 m at a time.
Hydraulic chocks, conveyor and shearer

The coal is cut from the coalface by a

machine called the shearer (power loader).
This machine can weigh 75–120 tonnes
typically and comprises a main body,
housing the electrical functions, the
tractive motive units to move the shearer
along the coalface and pumping units (to
power both hydraulic and water functions).
At either end of the main body are fitted
the ranging arms which can be ranged
vertically up down by means of hydraulic
rams, and on to which are mounted the
shearer cutting drums which are fitted with
40–60 cutting picks. Within the ranging
arms are housed very powerful electric
motors (typically up to 850 kW) which
transfer their power through a series of lay
gears within the body and through the
arms to the drum mounting locations at
the extreme ends of the ranging arms
where the cutting drums are. The cutting
drums are rotated at a speed of 20–
50 revs/min to cut the mineral from coal
seam.
Chocks providing support to allow shearer to work

The shearer is carried along the length of

the face on the armoured face conveyor
(AFC); using a chain-less haulage system,
which resembles a ruggedised rack and
pinion system specially developed for
mining. Prior to the chainless haulage
systems, haulage systems with Chain
were popular, where a heavy duty chain
was run along the length of the coal face
for the shearer to pull itself along. The
shearer moves at a speed of 10–30 m/min
depending on cutting conditions.

The AFC is placed in front of the powered

roof supports, and the shearing action of
the rotating drums cutting into the coal
seam disintegrates the coal, this being
loaded on to the AFC. The coal is removed
from the coal face by a scraper chain
conveyor to the main gate. Here it is
loaded on to a network of conveyor belts
for transport to the surface. At the main
gate the coal is usually reduced in size in a
crusher, and loaded on to the first
conveyor belt by the beam stage loader
(BSL).
As the shearer removes the coal, the AFC
is snaked over behind the shearer and the
powered roof supports move forward into
the newly created cavity. As mining
progresses and the entire longwall
progresses through the seam, the goaf
increases. This goaf collapses under the
weight of the overlying strata. The strata
approximately 2.5 times the thickness of
the coal seam removed collapses and the
beds above settle on to the collapsed
goaf. This collapsing can lower surface
height, causing problems such as
changing the course of rivers and severely
damaging building foundations.[8]
Comparison with room and
pillar method
Longwall and room and pillar methods of
mining can both be used for mining
suitable underground coal seams.
Longwall has better resource recovery
(about 80% compared with about 60% for
room and pillar method,[9] fewer roof
support consumables are needed, higher
volume coal clearance systems, minimal
manual handling and safety of the miners
is enhanced by the fact that they are
always under the hydraulic roof supports
when they are extracting coal.[9]
Automation
Longwall mining has traditionally been a
manual process in which alignment of the
face equipment was done with string lines.
Technologies have been developed which
automates several aspects of the longwall
mining operation, including a system that
aligns the face of the retreating longwall
panel perpendicularly to the gate-roads.

Briefly, Inertial navigation system outputs

are used in a dead reckoning calculation to
estimate the shearer positions. Optimal
Kalman filters and smoothers can be
applied to improve the dead reckoning
estimates prior to repositioning the
longwall equipment at the completion of
each shear.[10] Expectation-maximization
algorithms can be used to estimate the
unknown filter and smoother parameters
for tracking the longwall shearer
positions.[11]

Compared to manual control of the mine

equipment, the automated system yields
improved production rates. In addition to
productivity gains, automating longwall
equipment leads to safety benefits. The
coalface is a hazardous area because
methane and carbon monoxide are
present, while the area is hot and humid
since water is sprayed over the face to
minimize the likelihood of sparks
occurring when the shearer picks strike
rock. By automating manual processes,
face workers can be removed from these
hazardous areas.

Environmental impacts
As with many mining techniques, it is
important to consider the local and
regional environmental impacts from
longwall mining.

Subsidence
Longwall Mine Subsidence (LWMS) is an
anthropogenic process that has many
ecological and environmental impacts,
particularly on soil health and water
movement in a region where LWMS is
heavily done. This is important to consider
as some longwall mine sites can span
lengths of several kilometers. That being
said, hydrological flow systems, root
systems from trees, and vegetative
species can suffer from the amounts of
soil being removed beneath them, and
these stresses lead to surface erosion.[12]

Abandoned mines are also an issue with

regards to areas where residential
development has moved in. Houses
erected near to abandoned longwall mines
face the threat of future damage from
sinkholes and poor soil quality, even up to
thirty years after mine abandonment.[13]

Since longwall mining is namely, very long,

it can effect areas of over 200 acres. Over
these largest spans, it has been observed
that longwall mines underlying mountain
sides demonstrate more visible
subsidence in mountain landscapes than it
does for valley landscapes.[13]

There have been cases of surface

subsidence altering the landscape above
the mines. At Newstan Colliery in New
South Wales, Australia "the surface has
dropped by as much as five metres in
places" above a multi level mine.[14] In
some cases the subsidence causes
damage to natural features such as
drainage to water courses[15] or man-made
structures such as roads and buildings.
"Douglas Park Drive was closed for four
weeks because longwall panels ...
destabilised the road. In 2000, the State
Government stopped mining when it came
within 600 metres from the twin bridges. A
year later there were reports of 40-
centimetre gaps appearing in the road, and
the bridge had to be jacked sideways to
realign it."[15]:2

A 2005 geotechnical report commissioned

by the NSW RTA warns that "subsidence
could happen suddenly and occur over
many years".[15]

However, there are several mines, which

were successfully mined with little to no
measurable surface subsidence including
mines under lakes, oceans, important
water catchments and environmentally
sensitive areas. Subsidence is minimised
by increasing the block's adjacent chain
pillar widths, decreasing extracted block
widths and heights, and by giving
consideration to the depth of cover as well
as competency and thickness of overlying
strata.

Fracturing and water quality

Longwall mining can result in geological

disruptions in the rockbed, and can in turn
effect water movement and result in water
moving away from the surface, through
the mined area, and into the aquifer. A
resulting loss in surface water can
negatively impact riparian ecosystems.[16]
On top of this, if there are present dams
near to the longwall mining site, this could
doubly impact the riparian ecosystems as
it would have a reduced inflow rate as well
as the loss to the underlying rock
fracturing.[16]

As of 2014, measures were taken by the

Australian government to mitigate water
impacts from longwall mining. Legislative
assemblies have called for action to
improve mine infrastructure to minimize
disturbances.[17]

As a result of bedrock cracking from

mining beneath waters such as lakes or
rivers, there have been groundwater losses
of varying extents. Mines within a few
hundred meters of the surface are
susceptible to receiving great inputs of
water from these bodies. Moreover, after
mining interference disturbing the natural
landscape near the mines, the natural
water flow paths can be redirected which
results in additional erosion across a
stream or river bank. Additional mining in
concentrated areas continuously move
these water flow paths, which take years
to return to their original states.[18]

Ecosystem impacts
Many ecosystems rely on the annual
consistency of water inputs and outputs,
and disturbing these patterns can result in
unsustainable conditions for species
reliant on water for species reproduction.
Longwall mining can also result in
localized water temperature change,
stimulating algal bloom which can use up
available oxygen required for other species
health.[19]

Longwall mining has limited available

research on the impacts of nearby forests,
however emerging satellite imagery
studies have shown possible relations to
drier surface soil near regions where
longwall mining has recently occurred. In
addition to drier soils, forest canopy
moisture has been observed to be
reduced.[20]

Gas emissions

Longwall mines have been observed to

release methane gas, a common
greenhouse gas into the environment,
however the increase of a typical longwall
mine face from 200 meters to 300 meters
was not found to release significantly
more methane.[21][22] Methane emissions
from closed longwall mines can continue
for up to fifteen years, however it is
possible to measure the volume of
potential methane emissions based on
water flow in the closed mines.[21]

In Canada
Canada is one of the top coal reserves in
the world[23] and up until 2013 there were
no longwall mines in Canada for over 25
years. A mine opened by HD Mining in
2015 in British Columbia, causing disputes
regarding the hiring of foreign workers
instead of Canadians, and its potential
impacts to the environment.[24][25] This
mine expected to have carbon dioxide
emissions of 17 megatons per year,
however a carbon cap was placed on it by
the Canadian federal government to keep
the emissions at 500,000 tonnes per
year.[25]

See also
Drift mining
Slope mining
Shaft mining
Strip mining
Glossary of coal mining terminology

Notes
1. Longwall Mining Archived 2009-08-
17 at the Wayback Machine, Office of