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by jhallenworld
252 days ago
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Its does, but you should see the machines they use for coal mining these days, particularly in Wyoming. A giant strip mine seems to require like 20 workers, but with giant trucks and excavators. Even for underground mines, check out the massive longwall mining machines they use- it's kind of astonishing. They pretty much take all the coal. I think this is lost in the political talk about protecting mining jobs- the main original competition is more efficient mining operations. Anyway, it really says something that natural gas and solar are cheaper than coal given this context. |
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It's a bit dated (completed in 1978) and cost approximately $100 million. At one point it was the heaviest land vehicle, clocking in at 13,500 tons. It's since been succeded, but this bucket-wheel excavator needed only five people to operate. Those five people could mine 240,000 tons of coal[8] or 240,000 cubic metres of overburden (rock/soil on top of the coal) per day. That's 2400 coal wagons!
After totally tapping out all of the coal at the Tagebau Hambach mine, in 2001, it took a crew of 70 together to move it 14 miles to the next mine. This move cost 15 million German Marks.
(Just watch the linked documentary.)