Red Hills Coal Mine, Ackerman, MS

Took a field trip to a coal mine in Ackerman yesterday. This is the one and only coal mine in the state of Mississippi. It was a lot bigger than I was expecting too. They're mining low-grade lignite coal. There's a powerplant right next door that accepts all the coal they produce, sort of a symbiotic relationship. Not the first open-pit coal mine I've ever seen, but the first one I've gotten to go into. Not very exciting in terms of geology, but they sure did have some cool equipment... Here's some pictures.

Soil auger, used for finding depth to coal seams in soon to be mined areas.

Stratigraphy. There are 6 coal seams they mine, the largest is only 5 feet thick. In Wyoming this past summer, we saw a coal mine with two 45 foot thick seams...

Dump truck being loaded by coal scraper thingy. The overburden (dirt) is removed until they've got it down to just the coal seam. Then, this thing drives around and just scrapes it up...

Dump truck on the move, hauling ~120 tons of coal.

Rear wheels of dumptruck. Cale Sellers for scale (he's about 5'7").

The dragline, which according to our tour guide, is only a medium sized one. Note tractor for scale. Length of the boom is 320 feet.

The bucket of the dragline. Holds something like 80 cubic yards. Note truck and D9 Cat for scale.

The view from the operator's control station...

We climbed up the boom, this is from about halfway up...

At the top looking down on the bucket and a truck... Around 200 feet up in the air.