Hey guys, For those of you who live around coal mines, work in coal mines, or know a lot about coal mines this question's for you. Where your at does the coal company strip there own overburden, or do they hire an earthmoving company to do it for them? I'm especially interested in the current active coal mines in Pennsylvania and West Virgina since I live in Ohio. As far as I know Ohio Coal Mines are basically unactive.
I don't know about the coal mines in the eastern US, but I've done a fair amount of this work out west. It seems to me that one of the biggest factors is availability of personnel. A lot of the big coal mines in Wyoming and Montana, and the ore mines in northern Nevada are in remote areas, where it's often hard to get the manpower to fill the seats of a lot of scrapers. Because of this, a lot of times its easier for the mining company to sub the work out to a mass grading contractor who can bring in the equipment and manpower. I know Ames Construction does a considerable amount of stripping and reclamation work in the coal mines in Wyoming and the hard rock mines in northern Nevada. Kiewit Mining Group has almost all of its stripping/reclamation done through the Kiewit Construction divisions. Stripping/reclamation are good ways to keep big fleets of scrapers profitable during the winter when construction work has slowed down. I'm not sure of the extent, but I know several of the big mine companies in/around Gillette have sizeable fleets of scrapers. I heard, though I don't know the accuracy, that Black Thunder even has 657G's in their scraper fleet.
Pennsylvania I live in central Pa and not much contracting goes on here But the larger companies towards western Pa I have herd that some do use Contractors for their enviromental work, such as ponds ditches and some reclamation. It would'nt hurt to do a bit of advertising or phone contacting. I could give you some prospects if you are interested by personal e-mail or phone.
I live in Luzerne county which is the anthracite coal capital of the world. Most companies strip their own overburden. I know of one coal company that is subbing that out now so they don't have to deal with the union. Speaking of coal companies. I have a 3508 motor sitting in my garage for 3 years that we started to rebuild for one, but they ran out of money. They won't get it back till they finish paying us. ointhead
Thanks for the help guys, I'm not looking to do this for any companies, I'm only 15, just curious that's all. I know Beaver Excavating has 4 EX 1200's, 40 631's, numerous D9L Pushcats, numerous 773's, 100 excavators total, currently looking into buying 2 PC 1250's. They are stationed in Canton, Ohio with a full service office in Tridelphia, West Virginia. Here in Ohio I haven't heard much of there big trucks and excavators, so I imagine they are in Pennsylvania or West Virginia which led me to the thought of the coal mine overburden stripping.
Yeah most if not all the coal company's here use there own equipment to uncover the coal reserves. Not many Hire company's have big shovels for the job. Most sites here only last short term and it wouldn't make good economics to buy Big Trucks and shovels for the 30% chance of getting the big contract's. The company I work for have already paid for there equipment and this is one of the reasons they fight for the coal available. Ross
Beaver Ex Fenson, Where are you getting your information about Beaver Excavating? I was under the impression that they only had 2 EX1200's at this point...sold one to Independence in Cleveleand and not sure about the fourth. Don't know about their scraper fleeet either....other than they own several. Beyond this I have also heard talk that they are looking at a 190 metric ton machine and going to 100 ton trucks....in lieu of the 120 metric ton machines.....and have also heard that they are staying with Hitachi due to the new 1900-6 being released....just curious as to who your source was and how recent their history was with Beaver.
Hey, Well Beaver did a reservoir 5 miles from my house, there foreman and mechanic were both quite some help. The information I gained about there 4 EX 1200's was from someone who works for Independence Excavating. When Independence was selling one of there PC 1250's Beaver went to Welch, WV where it was located to look at it. Beaver's man said "we have 4 EX 1200's, and were looking to buy 2 PC 1250's. So, I didn't hear that directly towards me, but I believe it, Beaver is something else. Currently one of Beaver's EX 1200's is at Lafarge in Paulding, Ohio which is 40 minutes from me, it's going to be loading 773's, not sure how many currently. They also have Cat Challenger Pull Pans, Beaver brought in 2 Deere Loaders to put the beds on the 773's. You know of any of Beaver's other big projects?
I myself see alot of your bigger compaines trying to do as much as they can themselves, only if it is cost effective. However, if a contractor does alot of business with them somtimes they will trade stripping for products. You scratch my back i'll scratch yours kinda thing. Trbo
I knew of a lot of work going on in Kentucky that was contracted. I know of one smaller stripping company that was stripping 30-50 acre tracts so fast they couldn't stop to reclaim, so they had contracted work for the reclaiming their mines. It seemed like it was a supply/demand thing, when work was slow, the contractors were slow, when coal prices were up, mining companies couldn't keep up with their volume so they hired out a lot of the work. Much like building drilling pads/locations for gas and oil companies, it's pretty much labor/equipment charges as opposed to bid work, so a contractor can really make some dough since there is little risk involved.