The Kayenta mine was a surface coal mine operated by Peabody Western Coal Company, a subsidiary of Peabody Energy ) on the Navajo Nation in northern Arizona from 1973 to 2019. About 400 acres were mined and reclaimed each year, providing about 8 million tons of coal annually to the Navajo Generating Station .
58-542: The Kayenta mine was located near the northern edge of Black Mesa , a 5,400 square mile highland plateau in northeast Arizona that contains extensive coal deposits in several geologic formations . Since about 1300 AD, the Hopi had extracted coal from the area for pottery firing and domestic heating. In the early 1900s, limited surveying of the coal field was made and a number of small underground mines were put into production, supplying local reservation schools and communities in
116-570: A Bucyrus-Erie 4250-W put online in 1969 that swung a 220 cu yd (170 m ), 325 ton capacity bucket, had a 310 feet (94 m) boom, and weighed 13,500 tons. The largest walking dragline produced as of 2014 was Joy Global ’s digital AC drive control P&H 9020XPC, which has a bucket capacity of 110–160 cu yd (84–122 m ) and boom lengths ranging from 325–425 ft (99–130 m); working weights vary between 7,539 and 8,002 tons. Draglines fall into two broad categories: those that are based on standard, lifting cranes, and
174-429: A Tarong BE1370. Since draglines are typically large, complicated and very expensive, training new operators can be a tricky process. In the same way that flight simulators have developed to train pilots, mining simulator software has been developed to assist new operators in learning how to control the machines. UDD stands for universal dig-dump . It represents the first fundamental change to draglines for almost
232-455: A century, since the invention of the 'miracle hitch'. Instead of using two ropes (the hoist rope and the drag rope) to manipulate the bucket, a UDD machine uses four ropes, two hoist and two drag. This allows the dragline operator to have much greater selectivity in when to pick up the bucket, and in how the bucket may be dumped. UDD machines generally have higher productivity than a standard dragline, but often have greater mechanical issues. Within
290-728: A company also associated with drainage pumping engines. Electric drive systems were only used on the larger mining machines, most modern machines use a diesel-hydraulic drive, as machines are seldom in one location long enough to justify the cost of installing a substation and supply cables. The basic mechanical technology of draglines, unlike that of most equipment used in earth-moving, has remained relatively unchanged in design and control functions for almost 100 years. Some advances, however, have been made (such as hydraulic, then electro-hydraulic, controls (including joysticks ) and using simulation software to train new operators), are being pursued (such as improved automation systems), or are arguable as
348-454: A concentration that is about 1/10th that of average shale rock and among the lowest concentrations in US coals. Coal is removed by the open cut or strip mining method. Topsoil is first removed and placed on previously mined and re-contoured areas or stored separately for later reclamation. Overburden is then blasted to loosen the materials and is removed primarily by electric dragline to expose
406-535: A controlling interest and the joint company became known as Bucyrus-Monighan until the formal merger in 1946. The first walking dragline excavator in the United Kingdom was used at the Wellingborough iron quarry in 1940. Ransomes & Rapier was founded in 1869 by four engineers to build railway equipment and other heavy works. In 1914 they started building two small steam shovels as a result of
464-411: A customer request. The rope-operated crowd system they built for this was patented and later sold to Bucyrus. After WWI, demand for excavators increased and in 1924 they reached an agreement to build Marion draglines from 1 to 8 cubic yards capacity. In 1927, they built Type-7 1-yard and Type-460 1.5-yard models. The deal to build Marion machines ended in 1936. R&R began building their own designs with
522-565: A few diesel-electric excavators rather over 1/10th its size, the largest in Europe in the 1960s at 1400-1800 tons. One, named SUNDEW , was used in a quarry from 1957 to 1974. After its working life at the first site in Rutland wrapped it walked 13 miles (21 km) in 9 weeks to Corby , where it continued on till being scrapped from January to June 1987. Smaller draglines were also commonly used before hydraulic excavators came into common use,
580-447: A few miles south of the town of Kayenta. Reliable springs surfacing at several locations mean the mesa is more suitable for continuous habitation than much of the surrounding desert area. It is now split between the Hopi and Diné ( Navajo ) tribal reservations. Black Mesa is also the name of a small Navajo community off BIA-8066, which lies 17 miles west of Rough Rock , 20 miles north of Blue Gap and 25 miles northeast of Pinon . In
638-603: A four-foot-thick root zone. The land is then seeded and restored for grazing, wildlife habitat, and cultural plant cultivation. Replanted areas are monitored for a minimum of 10 years to correct any erosion problems, control invasive weeds, and insure the plant systems are fully established before being released for grazing. As of 2012, more than 15,000 acres had been restored on the Black Mesa Complex and 39 permanent ponds had been created for livestock watering and wildlife habitat. Reclamation efforts were recognized by
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#1732797608631696-586: A large dragline bucket system is shown below. The dragline was invented in 1904 by John W. Page (as a partner of the firm Page & Schnable Contracting) for use in digging the Chicago Canal . By 1912, Page realized that building draglines was more lucrative than contracting, so he created the Page Engineering Company to build draglines. Page built its first crude walking dragline in 1923. These used legs operated by rack and pinion on
754-415: A number of locations identified as sacred or ceremonial sites. Measures to protect air quality include water sprays and sprinklers to control dust on dirt roads and disturbed areas, enclosures and water sprays at belt conveyor transfer points, baghouses on coal storage silos, and other requirements of the mine's Clean Air Act operating permit NN-OP 08-010. The permit is administered, monitored and enforced by
812-542: A proper elliptical motion and was used until 1988. Page modernized its draglines further with the 700 series in 1954. Page's largest dragline was the Model 757 delivered to the Obed Mine near Hinton, Alberta in 1983. It featured a 75-yard bucket on a 298-foot boom and an operating weight of 4,500 tons. In 1988, Harnischfeger Corporation ( P&H Mining Equipment ) purchased Page Engineering Company. Harnischfeger Corporation
870-565: A separate frame that lifted the crane. The body was then pulled forward by chain on a roller track and then lowered again. Page developed the first diesel engines exclusively for dragline application in 1924. Page also invented the arched dragline bucket, a design still commonly used today by draglines from many other manufacturers, and in the 1960s pioneered an archless bucket design. With its walking mechanism badly behind that of competitor Monighan (see below), Page updated their mechanism to an eccentric drive in 1935. This much improved mechanism gave
928-488: A simple single-crank mechanism in 1939. Its largest dragline was the 8950 sold to Amax Coal Company in 1973. It featured a 150-cubic yard bucket on a 310-foot boom and weighed 7,300 tons. Marion was acquired by Bucyrus in 1997. Bucyrus Foundry and Manufacturing Company entered the dragline market in 1910 with the purchase of manufacturing rights for the Heyworth-Newman dragline excavator. Their "Class 14" dragline
986-526: A step forward (as is "universal dig-dump" ( UDD )): Researchers at CSIRO in Australia have a long-term research project into automating draglines. Mining automation teams at QCAT, a CSIRO division; have been developing the automation technology since 1994. Automated systems include cruise control and Digital Terrain Mapping . Working solutions include the proof-of-concept dragline swing cruise control on
1044-586: A subsidiary of Peabody Coal Company , was issued drilling and exploration permits on the Mesa to determine areas where coal could be economically recovered. In 1964 and 1966, Sentry entered into mining lease agreements with the tribes for 64,848 acres. The first lease was made in 1964 for 24,858 acres of land held exclusively by the Navajo Tribe, designated Navajo Coal Lease No. 14-20-0603-8580, or N-8580 for short. The additional 40,000 acres were leased in 1966 in
1102-452: A walking dragline of 31-yard bucket capacity. HEC makes up to a 44-yard bucket. For comparison, this would be comparable to Caterpillar's Small Draglines 8000 series with a 42-yard bucket. HEC has supplied fifteen draglines to the Indian mining industry. In a typical cycle of excavation, the bucket is positioned above the material to be excavated. The bucket is then lowered and the dragrope
1160-418: Is a long-lived story that, back in the 1970s, if all seven draglines at Peak Downs Mine (a very large BHP coal mine in central Queensland , Australia) turned simultaneously, they would black out all of North Queensland . However even now, if they have been shut down, they are always restarted one at a time due to the immense power requirements of startup. In all but the smallest of draglines, movement
1218-406: Is accomplished by "walking" using feet or pontoons , as caterpillar tracks place too much pressure on the ground, and have great difficulty under the immense weight of the dragline. Maximum speed is only at most a few metres per minute, since the feet must be repositioned for each step. If travelling medium distances (about 30–100 km), a special dragline carrier can be brought in to transport
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#17327976086311276-492: Is called Dziłíjiin ('Black Mountain') and during Mexican rule of Arizona it was called Mesa de las Vacas ( Spanish for ' mesa of the cows'). It derives its dark appearance from its pinyon-juniper and mixed conifer woodlands. The mesa is located on the Colorado Plateau near Kayenta, Arizona , and rises to over 8,168 ft (2,490 m). Its highest peak is located on Black Mesa's northern rim,
1334-400: Is erected on site is commonly used in strip-mining operations to remove overburden above coal and more recently for oil sands mining. The largest heavy draglines are among the largest mobile land machines ever built, weighing up to 13,500 tons, while the smallest and most common of the site-erected type weigh around 8,000 tons. A dragline bucket system consists of a large bucket which
1392-559: Is limited by the length of rope the dragline can utilize. Inherent with their construction, a dragline is most efficient excavating material below the level of their base. While a dragline can dig above itself, it does so inefficiently and is not suitable to load piled up material (as a rope shovel or wheel loader can). Despite their limitations, and their extremely high capital cost, draglines remain popular with many mines, due to their reliability, and extremely low waste removal cost. The coal mining dragline known as Big Muskie , owned by
1450-553: Is regulated through the US EPA's National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System under NPDES permit No. NN0022179, and Multi-Sector General Permit No. AZR05000I. The mine pumps about 1,240 acre-feet (1.5 million cubic meters ) of ground water per year from the Navajo aquifer (aka N-aquifer). The water is used primarily for dust control, with about 60 acre-feet (74,000 m) made available to area residents. Up until December 2005,
1508-406: Is so great that they have a direct connection to the high-voltage grid at voltages of between 6.6 and 22 kV. A typical dragline weighing 4000 to 6000 tons, with a 55-cubic-metre bucket, can use up to 6 megawatts during normal digging operations. Because of this, many (possibly apocryphal ) stories have been told about the blackout-causing effects of mining draglines. For instance, there
1566-446: Is suspended from a large truss -like boom (or mast) with wire ropes . The bucket is maneuvered by means of a number of ropes and chains. The hoist rope, powered by large diesel or electric motors , supports the bucket and hoist-coupler assembly from the boom. The dragrope is used to draw the bucket assembly horizontally. By skillful maneuver of the hoist and the dragropes the bucket is controlled for various operations. A schematic of
1624-414: Is then drawn so that the bucket is dragged along the surface of the material. The bucket is then lifted by using the hoist rope . A swing operation is then performed to move the bucket to the place where the material is to be dumped. The dragrope is then released causing the bucket to tilt and empty. This is called a dump operation. On crane-type draglines, the bucket can also be 'thrown' by winding up to
1682-514: The open pit mining industry costs approximately US$ 50–100 million. A typical bucket has a volume ranging from 40 to 80 cubic yards (30 to 60 cubic metres), though extremely large buckets have ranged up to 220 cubic yards (168 cubic meters). The length of the boom ranges from 45 to 100 metres (148 to 328 ft). In a single cycle, it can move up to 450 tons of material. Most mining draglines are not diesel-powered like most other mining equipment. Their power consumption on order of several megawatts
1740-402: The steam shovel and its diesel and electric powered descendant, the power shovel . Much more efficient than even the largest of the latter, it enjoyed a heyday in extreme size for most of the 20th century, first becoming challenged by more efficient rotary excavators in the 1950s, then superseded by them on the upper end from the 1970s on. The largest ever walking dragline was Big Muskie ,
1798-537: The 800 ton 650-B which used a 15-yard bucket. Bucyrus' largest dragline was Big Muskie built for the Ohio Coal Company in 1969. This machine featured a 220-yard bucket on a 450-foot boom and weighed 14,500 tons. Bucyrus was itself acquired by heavy equipment and diesel engine maker, Caterpillar, in 2011. Caterpillar's largest dragline is the 8750 with a 169-yard bucket, 435-foot boom, and 8,350 ton weight. The market for draglines began shrinking rapidly after
Kayenta Mine - Misplaced Pages Continue
1856-670: The Black Mesa Complex. In 1982, the U.S. Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSM) issued permit AZ-0001 for surface mining and reclamation operations on the Black Mesa and Kayenta mines. The permit was most recently renewed in 2012 for the Kayenta Mine as permit No. AZ-0001E. In 2005, the Black Mesa Mine ceased production when the Mohave Generating Station was shut down, leaving
1914-437: The Black Mesa mine had used ground water to slurry coal through a 273-mile-long (439 km) pipeline to the Mohave Generating Station. Until the station was shut down, the combined water usage by both mines had been 4,450 acre⋅ft (5.5 million m) per year. Once a section has been mined out, it is backfilled and graded to the approximate previous contour and topped with suitable spoil, subsoil, and topsoil to create
1972-586: The Central Ohio Coal Company (a division of American Electric Power ), was the world's largest mobile earth-moving machine, weighing 13,500 tons and standing nearly 22 stories tall. It operated in Muskingum County , in the U.S. state of Ohio from 1969 to 1991, and derived power from a 13,800 volt electrical supply. It was dismantled for $ 700,000 worth of recycled metal in 1999. The British firm of Ransomes & Rapier produced
2030-653: The Kayenta Mine as the only active mine in the leasehold area. As of June, 2019, the mine staff was being reduced in anticipation of the closure of the Navajo Generating Station . The mine delivered its last load of coal to the station in August 2019, and the station closed in November 2019. The closures reduced the Hopi budget by $ 12 million, or 80% of the total budget. The coal that is mined comes from
2088-553: The Monighan Machine Company. In 1913, a Monighan engineer named Oscar Martinson invented the first walking mechanism for a dragline. The device, known as the Martinson Tractor, was installed on a Monighan dragline, creating the first walking dragline. This gave Monighan a significant advantage over other draglines and the company prospered. The cam mechanism was further improved in 1925 by eliminating
2146-639: The Navajo Generating Station near Page, Arizona. Mine locations were set relative to conveying transfer points, natural divisions between recoverable sections of coal (called coal resource areas), and projected quantities to be supplied to the respective power plants, such that each mine had portions on both the Navajo Reservation and in the Joint Use Area. The leased areas, mines, and facilities were collectively termed
2204-570: The Navajo Nation Environmental Protection Agency (NNEPA), as authorized by the US EPA. Peabody maintains a network of PM10 particulate monitors to assess the effectiveness of fugitive dust control measures and ensure compliance with national ambient air quality standards ( NAAQS ). Monitoring data are reported quarterly to the OSM and NNEPA. Two main washes – Moenkopi Wash and Dinnebito Wash – pass through
2262-503: The Navajo-Hopi Joint Use Area, leases being entered into with each of the two tribes – Joint Mineral Lease No. 14-20-0450-5743, aka J-5743, with the Hopi tribe, and 14-20-0603-9910, aka J-9910, with the Navajo Tribe. When the Joint Use Area was later partitioned between the tribes in 1974, much of the mine lease area and surface rights ended up with Navajo Nation, but the two tribes retained joint and equal interest in
2320-530: The Type-4120 followed by the 4140 of 3.5 cubic yards. In 1958 the Ramsomes & Rapier division was sold to Newton, Chambers & Co. of Sheffield, which was combined with their NCK Crane & Excavator division. This became NCK-Rapier. The walking dragline division of NCK-Rapier was acquired by Bucyrus in 1988. The Marion Power Shovel Company (established in 1880) built its first walking dragline with
2378-591: The U.S. Office of Surface Mining for reclamation excellence in 1998; for cultural, historic and archaeological preservation in 2002; good neighbor award in 2003, and reclamation excellence and good neighbor awards in 2005. Black Mesa (Apache-Navajo Counties, Arizona) Black Mesa (also called Big Mountain ) is an upland mountainous mesa of Arizona , north-trending in Navajo County , west and southeast-trending in Apache County . In Navajo it
Kayenta Mine - Misplaced Pages Continue
2436-471: The Wepo formation, the uppermost coal-bearing formation on the Mesa, and is removed from multiple seams that are typically 3 to 15 feet thick and lie within about 130 feet of the surface. It is classified as low-sulfur, high volatile C bituminous , having a heat content of 10,820 Btu/lb, ash content of 10.4%, and sulfur content of 0.63%. Average mercury content is 0.04 ppm , or about 4 lb/trillion Btu,
2494-776: The area is a local Chapter House and a community school. The mesa is located within, and gives its name to, the Black Mesa Basin . Since the 1960s the mesa has been strip mined for coal by the Peabody Western Coal Company , stirring a controversy over Peabody Energy's use of groundwater to transport coal. In 2013, the Climate Justice Alliance (CJA) , collaborating with the Black Mesa Water Coalition, held their first national gathering in opposition to
2552-428: The boom of the 1960s and 1970s which led to more mergers. P&H's acquisition of Page in 1988 along with Bucyrus' acquisition of Ransomes & Rapier in 1988 and Marion in 1997 cut the number of worldwide suppliers of heavy draglines by more than half. Today, P&H and Caterpillar are the only remaining manufacturers of large draglines. Heavy Engineering Corporation Limited was the first Indian company to manufacture
2610-601: The coal and other minerals under the partitioned lands. Peabody developed two separate mines within the leasehold area – the Black Mesa mine and Kayenta mine. The Black Mesa mine, located on 20,775 acres in the southwestern section of the leasehold area, began operation in 1970 supplying the Mohave Generating Station in Laughlin, Nevada via a pipeline . The Kayenta mine, on 44,073 acres in the northern and eastern sections, began operation in 1973 supplying
2668-407: The coal seams. Excavators , loaders and haul trucks then remove the exposed coal to a collection point, where it is crushed and loaded on a 17-mile-long (27 km) overland belt conveyor. The conveyor carries the coal to rail load-out silos, where the coal is loaded into BM&LP rail cars bound for the Navajo Generating Station . Areas disturbed by mine activities cover less than half of
2726-417: The drag chains for the shoes and changing to a cam wheel running in an oval track. This gave the shoe a proper elliptical motion. The first dragline using the new mechanism was the 3-W available in 1926. So popular were these machines that the name Monighan became a generic term for dragline. In the early 1930s, Bucyrus-Erie began purchasing shares of Monighan stock with Monighan's approval. Bucyrus purchased
2784-415: The dragline. Above that distance, disassembly is generally required. But mining draglines due to their reach can work a large area from one position and do not need to constantly move along the face like smaller machines. The primary limitations of draglines are their boom height and boom length, which limits where the dragline can dump the waste material. Another primary limitation is their dig depth, which
2842-533: The heavy units which have to be built on-site. Most crawler cranes, with an added winch drum on the front, can act as a dragline. These units (like other cranes) are designed to be temporarily dismantled and transported over the road on flatbed trailers. Draglines used in civil engineering are of this smaller, crane type. These are used for road , port construction, pond and canal dredging, and as pile driving rigs. These types are built by crane manufacturers such as Link-Belt and Hyster . The much larger type which
2900-447: The jib and then releasing a clutch on the drag cable. This would then swing the bucket like a pendulum . Once the bucket had passed the vertical, the hoist cable would be released thus throwing the bucket. On smaller draglines, a skilled operator could make the bucket land about one-half the length of the jib further away than if it had just been dropped. On larger draglines, this is not a common practice. A large dragline system used in
2958-417: The leasehold area, and traditional land use and occupancy are allowed to continue within the leased area where safely removed from active mining operations. As of 2010, approximately 83 households were located within the leasehold area, four of them in an area planned for future mining operations. For those households that must be moved, Peabody provides for relocation to an agreed-upon area within or adjacent to
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#17327976086313016-704: The leasehold area, as well as compensation for acreage removed from customary grazing as a result of mining activities. From 1967 to 1986, one of the largest and longest-running archaeological projects in North America, the Black Mesa Archaeological Project, was conducted with the assistance of Peabody Coal Company to record, preserve or relocate archaeological artifacts within the leasehold area. Since 1986, Peabody has continued archaeological testing and mitigation ahead of mine activities. Mining operations have also been adjusted to avoid
3074-589: The mine permit area and eventually run into the Little Colorado River . Although mining does not occur in these washes, storm water runoff from areas disturbed by mining activities could potentially degrade the quality of water going into them. To prevent degradation of surface waters, sedimentation ponds are constructed under the mine's surface water protection program. Water quality is monitored and controlled at these ponds, as well as at livestock watering ponds, seeps and storm water runoff. The program
3132-545: The region. The coal field received increased attention beginning in 1950 when the Navajo-Hopi Long Range Rehabilitation Act was enacted in response to dire economic conditions on the reservations. The Act intended to promote economic development and better utilization of the reservations’ natural resources. As a result, the strata and coal deposits of Black Mesa were more extensively studied; and in 1961 and 1964 Sentry Royalty Company,
3190-515: The smaller draglines are now rarely used other than on river and gravel pit works. The small machines were of a mechanical drive with clutches. Firms such as Ruston and Bucyrus made models such as the RB10 which were popular for small building works and drainage work. Several of these can still be seen in the English Fens of Cambridgeshire , Lincolnshire and parts of Norfolk . Ruston's are
3248-403: The strip mining of the mesa. The gathering had an attendance of 100 members. 34°16′51″N 113°50′19″W / 34.2808509°N 113.8385493°W / 34.2808509; -113.8385493 Dragline excavator A dragline excavator is a heavy-duty excavator used in civil engineering and surface mining . It was invented in 1904, and presented an immediate challenge to
3306-644: Was established as P&H Mining in 1884 by Alonzo Pawling and Henry Harnischfeger . In 1914, P&H introduced the world's first gasoline engine powered dragline. In 1988, Page was acquired by Harnischfeger which makes the P&;H line of shovels , draglines, and cranes . P&H's largest dragline is the 9030C with a 160-yard bucket and up to a 425-foot boom. In 1907, Monighan's Machine Works of Chicago became interested in manufacturing draglines when local contractor John W. Page placed an order for hoisting machinery to install one. In 1908, Monighan changed its name to
3364-471: Was introduced in 1911 as the first crawler mounted dragline. In 1912 Bucyrus helped pioneer the use of electricity as a power source for large stripping shovels and draglines used in mining. An Italian company, Fiorentini , produced dragline excavators from 1919 licensed by Bucyrus. After the merger with Monighan in 1946, Bucyrus began producing much larger machines using the Monighan walking mechanism such as
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