analysis Interpretation of the news based on evidence, including data, as well as anticipating how events might unfold based on past events.
As the coal industry is squeezed, the most productive mines employ huge machines and relatively few people.
tons of coal per man-hour of work, 2015
Surface mines
Underground mines
tons per man-hour
North Antelope Rochelle
STRIP MINE
The most productive and efficient mine in the country. In 2015, it employed 1,418 people and produced 118 million tons of coal, more than 39 tons per man-hour.
tons per man-hour
Harvey Mine complex
UNDERGROUND MINE
1,674 employees
22.8 million tons
tons per man-hour
(closed 2016)
MOUNTAINTOP REMOVAL MINE
153 employees
2.8 million tons
tons of coal per man-hour of work, 2015
Surface mines
Underground mines
tons per man-hour
Harvey Mine complex
UNDERGROUND MINE
1,674 employees
22.8 million tons
tons per man-hour
tons per man-hour
North Antelope Rochelle
(closed in 2016)
STRIP MINE
MOUNTAINTOP REMOVAL MINE
The most productive and efficient mine in the country. In 2015, it employed 1,418 people and produced 118 million tons of coal, more than 39 tons per man-hour.
153 employees
2.8 million tons
tons of coal per man-hour of work, 2015
Surface mines
Underground mines
tons per man-hour
North Antelope Rochelle
tons per man-hour
STRIP MINE
Harvey Mine complex
The most productive and efficient mine in the country. In 2015, it employed 1,418 people and produced 118 million tons of coal, more than 39 tons per man-hour.
UNDERGROUND MINE
1,674 employees
22.8 million tons
tons per man-hour
(closed in 2016)
MOUNTAINTOP REMOVAL MINE
153 employees
2.8 million tons
The average miner underground in West Virginia produces three tons of coal per hour. The average miner at a strip mine in Wyoming produces nearly 28. That is not the fault of the miners but of the mines’ geology.
Appalachian coal mines have a size problem.
This is different from the well-documented problems of the industry itself. Yes, cheap natural gas has become the go-to fuel for generating electricity. And pollution regulations have made coal-fired plants less profitable. Exports have waned as China and other countries mine more of their own coal, and renewable options such as wind and solar have become more practical and widely used.
[Mapping how the United States generates its electricity]
Electricity generation
2 trillion kilowatt hours
Natural gas—
Hydroelectric
Coal production and consumption
1.5 billion tons
Production—
—Consumption
Electricity generation
Coal production and consumption
1.5 billion tons
2 trillion kilowatt hours
Production—
Natural gas—
—Consumption
Hydroelectric
But coal still accounts for 30 percent of the electricity generated in this country. The problem for Appalachia is that when the market is squeezed, its mines often can’t produce as much as the vast strip mines out west, where coal is easier to access and the machines that harvest it can be as big as engineers can build.
The 16 mines in the Powder River Basin produce 45 percent of the country’s coal, but only employ 10 percent of coal-mine workers.
Appalachian mines employ 56 percent of coal workers, but produce 24 percent of the coal.
Share of all U.S. coal
Production
Employment
Powder River
Basin
Appalachian
Basin
Illinois
Basin
Uinta
Basin
Western
region
Interior
region
Share of all U.S. coal …
Production
Employment
The 16 mines in the Powder River Basin produce 45 percent of the country’s coal, but only employ 10 percent of coal-mine workers.
Appalachian mines employ 56 percent of coal workers, but produce 24 percent of the coal.
Powder River
Basin
Appalachian
Basin
Uinta
Basin
Western
region
Interior
region
Illinois
Basin
“It’s an economy of scale,” said Jürgen Brune, professor of mining engineering at the Colorado School of Mines. “Smaller spaces require smaller equipment, and that reduces the productivity and the amount of coal you can get with the same number of miners.”
Wyoming strip mines: Biggest production
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North Antelope Rochelle Mine
North Antelope
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North Antelope
Antelope Creek—
North Antelope Rochelle Mine
Thunder Basin
National Grassland
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North Antelope
North Antelope Rochelle Mine
Antelope Creek—
Thunder Basin
National Grassland
Forty-five percent of the coal produced in the United States in 2015 came from 16 mines in the Powder River Basin of Wyoming and Montana, according to U.S. Energy Information Administration data.
Powder River Basin
surface mines
Very large-scale operations, with
coal seams as thick as 70 feet or more
that lie relatively close to the surface.
Giant dragline excavators remove rock
and dirt to expose and extract the coal.
Thick coal seam,
close to surface
The coal seam there is thicker than 70 feet in places, far larger than the seam running through Appalachia, which tops out at around 13 feet. The coal is less than 200 feet below mostly flat land, an ideal scenario for strip mining, Brune said.
The key piece of equipment in strip mining is a mobile dragline excavator, which scrapes away long rows of soil and rock (“overburden” in mining terms) to expose the coal seam below. The largest have bodies the size of 10-story buildings, 360-foot crane-like booms and dangling buckets big enough to scoop 100 tons of earth at a time. Shovels fill enormous dump trucks with 400 tons of coal per truckload.
Dump trucks used at the North Antelope Rochelle Mine in Wyoming are about 25 feet tall. The boom of the dragline excavator looming in the background soars hundreds of feet in the air. (Peabody Energy)
The giant dragline can be operated with as few as three people, and each truck requires just one driver. Of course there are many more mine jobs other than excavating, but these mammoth machines are a big reason that Powder River Basin strip mines produce 45 percent of the country’s coal with just 10 percent of the country’s coal-mining workforce.
Mountaintop removal mines: Less coal, more complications
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Hobet 21 Mine
Hobet 21 Surface Mine
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Hobet 21 Mine
Hobet 21 Surface Mine
Little Coal R.—
/>Your browser does not support the video tag. 
—Big Horse Cr.
Hobet 21 Mine
Hobet 21 Surface Mine
Little Coal R.—
The easiest-to-reach coal in Appalachia has been removed by generations of miners, so what remains requires more work to harvest. On the plus side, Appalachian coal can produce up to 80 percent more heat than coal from out west. But it also gives off more sulfur dioxide, so plants that use it need to have pricey scrubbers to trap the pollution.
[We would need 1.7 Earths to make our consumption sustainable]
Appalachian mountaintop
removal surface mines
Smaller footprints than the huge western
mines. Mountain peaks are leveled to expose the coal, and rubble is pushed into valleys. Appalachian coal seams are thinner, between five and 13 feet thick.
Thinner coal seam,
close to tops of
mountains
Because of the topography and the smaller coal seam, Appalachian surface mines are smaller and less productive than the huge western mines.
To create a surface mine in Appalachia, miners often remove the top of a mountain to expose the coal. Excavators push the rubble into the valleys below, sometimes burying or polluting streams. Mountaintop mining is the most controversial type of coal mining.
These mines use dragline excavators as well, but the space, terrain and the smaller coal seam limit their size. The average surface mine in West Virginia produces 10 tons of coal per man-hour, far less than half the Wyoming average of 27.5 tons.
Hobet 21 mine site
Areas already mined are considerably flatter than the surrounding unmined areas
Approximate extent of mined areas as
of 2003, when detailed elevation data
was last available.
Hobet 21 mine site
Areas already mined are considerably flatter than the surrounding unmined areas
Little Coal R.
Elevation (feet)
Approximate extent of mined areas as of 2003,
when detailed elevation data was last available
A well-managed mine will be well reclaimed, Brune said, and its land may be more useful for agriculture and other purposes than it was before. But federally required restoration and cleanup of these mine sites can be costly, and the results have been mixed. How and whether companies comply is the subject of much debate and litigation.
[Local programs get the biggest hit in proposed EPA budget]
Topography is supposed to be returned to “approximate original contours,” but exemptions are often granted for agriculture and commercial development. A 2016 Duke University study found that portions of West Virginia are now up to 40 percent flatter than they were before mountaintop mining began in the 1970s.
A view of the now-defunct Hobet 21 mine near Madison, W. Va., in 2008. (Michael Williamson/The Washington Post)
The sprawling Hobet 21 mine, which closed in 2015, was one of the largest surface mines in West Virginia. Some of the first areas that were mined have been reforested, but water pollution is a problem in other places, according to a Duke University study. Companies that operated the mine in recent years went bankrupt, leaving much of the original restoration plan undone.
Underground mines: Less efficient, biggest employers
Pittsburgh
D.C. at
same scale
PENNSYLVANIA
Washington
—Ohio R.
Enlow Fork Mine
Areas
already
mined
Harvey Mine
Unmined
reserves
Bailey
Mine
WEST VIRGINIA
Morgantown
Pittsburgh
PENNSYLVANIA
Washington
—Ohio R.
Enlow Fork Mine
Harvey Mine
Areas already mined—
Unmined
reserves
Waynesburg
Bailey
Mine
D.C. at
same scale
WEST VIRGINIA
Morgantown
Pittsburgh
PENNSYLVANIA
Washington
Ohio R.—
Enlow Fork Mine
Harvey Mine
Areas already mined—
Unmined
reserves
Waynesburg
D.C. at
same scale
Bailey
Mine
WEST VIRGINIA
Morgantown
More than 4 in 10 U.S. mines are underground, nearly all in Appalachia and the Illinois Basin, and they account for 61 percent of U.S. coal mining employees.
This is where scale really comes into play. While the mines may spread over an enormous underground area, tunnels are built only as tall as the coal seam, Brune said.
Underground mines
Most complex and labor-intensive. Miners and their machines must fit into narrow tunnels drilled far below the surface. Long conveyor belts and rail lines carry coal to processing plants at the surface.
Thinner coal seam,
deep underground
There is no room for mammoth excavators. The two most common types of mining machines used underground are longwall miners, which shave coal off the face of the coal seam with each pass — a little like slicing brisket — and continuous miners, which burrow forward into the coal with spiked, rotating blades. Most coal seams are less than 10 feet tall; a continuous miner can mine as low as 42 inches, Brune said.
Shuttle cars and miles-long conveyor belts carry the coal to processing plants at the surface.
The Bailey mine complex in western Pennsylvania is the largest underground mining complex in the country. Its three mines cover an area nearly four times of the District of Columbia, and they employ about 2,000 people. But the complex produced about one-fifth as much coal as Wyoming’s North Antelope Rochelle Mine in 2015.
Average number of employees, by mine, 2015
Surface mines
Underground mines
Pittsburgh
Bailey mine complex
Morgantown
Charleston
Coal jobs in the Appalachian Basin
Underground
mines
Surface
Average number of employees, by mine, 2015
Pittsburgh
Surface mines
Underground mines
Bailey mine complex
Morgantown
Clarksburg
WEST VIRGINIA
Charleston
Coal jobs in the Appalachian Basin
Underground
mines
Surface
mines
Average number of employees, by mine, 2015
Pittsburgh
Bailey mine complex
PENNSYLVANIA
Surface mines
Underground mines
Morgantown
Clarksburg
WEST VIRGINIA
Coal jobs in the Appalachian Basin
Charleston
Underground
mines
Surface
mines
Although Trump administration policies may boost the coal industry, experts say that probably won’t be enough to make less productive mines worth the effort. Entire areas that depended on underground mining may need to come up with a post-coal plan.
For instance, West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice, a coal and agriculture magnate, hopes to lure big employers to a residential and business park on nearly 12,000 acres of flat land not far from highways and an airport in Boone County. The site is called the Rock Creek Development Park, and it has raised hopes for economic revival in the area.
Its former name was the Hobet 21 Mine.
Source: Energy Information Administration; Google Earth Engine imagery; U.S. Geological Survey; CNX Coal Resources
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