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Coal mining
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====Strip mining==== Strip mining exposes coal by removing earth above each coal seam. This earth to be removed is referred to as 'overburden' and is removed in long strips.<ref name="T1">Ryan Driskell Tate, "Places of Overburden: Strip Mining and Reclamation on the Northern Great Plains," ''The Greater Plains: Rethinking a Region's Environmental Histories'' (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2021).</ref> The overburden from the first strip is deposited in an area outside the planned mining area and referred to as out-of-pit dumping. Overburden from subsequent strips is deposited in the void left from mining the coal and overburden from the previous strip. This is referred to as in-pit dumping.{{Citation needed|date=January 2021}} It is often necessary to fragment the overburden by use of explosives. This is accomplished by drilling holes into the overburden, filling the holes with explosives, and detonating the explosive. The overburden is then removed, using large earth-moving equipment, such as [[dragline]]s, [[Power shovel|shovel]] and trucks, [[excavator]] and trucks, or [[Bucket-wheel excavator|bucket-wheels]] and conveyors. This overburden is put into the previously mined (and now empty) strip. When all the overburden is removed, the underlying coal seam will be exposed (a 'block' of coal). This block of coal may be drilled and blasted (if hard) or otherwise loaded onto trucks or conveyors for transport to the coal preparation (or wash) plant. Once this strip is empty of coal, the process is repeated with a new strip being created next to it. This method is most suitable for areas with flat terrain.{{Citation needed|date=January 2021}} Equipment to be used depends on geological conditions. For example, to remove overburden that is loose or unconsolidated, a bucket wheel excavator might be the most productive. The life of some area mines may be more than 50 years.<ref name="Interior 1987">U.S. Department of the Interior, Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (1987). ''Surface coal mining reclamation: 10 years of progress, 1977β1987''. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office.</ref>
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