Brian Johnson's surfaace mining blog

      There are three types of surface mining and the first one is strip mining. Strip mining is where they mine from the surface of the mountain down. The first step is deforestation where all trees and everything else is bulldozed down. Then they blow up the dirt and rock (over burden) and move it to valleys until they reach the coal seam in the earth. The advantages for strip mining are that it is easy, safer, and less expensive to extract from the ground. One big disadvantage is that it pollutes local steams and ecosystems. When it rains the water drains threw the loose dirt and extracts the minerals and washes them into streams causing many of problems.

 

 

 

 

 

 

      Contour mining is another method of surface mining in which they cut along the contour lines in the mountain. This type of mining is used when the slope of the mountain is really steep. Each time they take the overburden off they have to move it to a previously mined location. The disadvantages are landslides and erosion and the overburden to coal ratio. It is time to call it quits on the mining site when you have spend more on moving the overburden than you get from the coal. But some people do think that contour mining is good for West Virginia because of our big steep mountains.

 

 

      The last method of surface mining is the most controversial, mountaintop removal. Mountaintop removal is pretty self explanatory.  They literally take off the top off a mountain sometimes up to 400 feet to get to the coal seams underneath. The only good thing about it is that it is the most effective method of mining but has the most disadvantages.  No matter what the coal companies say the mountain will never be the same as it used to be. For one the mountain is chopped off and it causes extreme pollution to the area and put toxics into the watershed killing them.