|
|
Post by Wheldale on Apr 27, 2012 15:53:43 GMT -5
When a colliery closed and if it had substantial reserves were these reserves transfered to nearby collieries? I often wonder when people say such and such pit had years worth of coal left if the coal is still there or if another pit worked it. An example is New Monckton colliery at Barnsley. Closed with 150m tonnes of reserves. Will the likes of Grimethorpe, Sharlston, Nostell and South Kirkby collieries worked the remaining coal?
|
|
|
|
Post by John on Apr 27, 2012 16:13:04 GMT -5
When a colliery closed and if it had substantial reserves were these reserves transfered to nearby collieries? I often wonder when people say such and such pit had years worth of coal left if the coal is still there or if another pit worked it. An example is New Monckton colliery at Barnsley. Closed with 150m tonnes of reserves. Will the likes of Grimethorpe, Sharlston, Nostell and South Kirkby collieries worked the remaining coal?
Most of those worked in the beginning were by Bord and Pillar to the north, partly under the City of Nottingham.
Later they worked to the south, mostly under faring areas using hand got longwalling, some double units, others single units.
Come the late 1950's until closure, all faces were mechanized longwalls.
Now beneath our bottom worked seam was the Ashgate and Blackshale, both thick seams, (I'm not totally sure as of yet if "both" the Ashgate and Blackshale are one of the same seam, but anyhow, it or they were the next seams down from the Tupton/Low Main seam, and a "virgin seam" until Cotgrave started on the Blackshale in the late 70's 80's... So there was many millions of tons of that coal left.
After Clifton was closed and shafts sealed and capped, the mine would have flooded within a few years, so any hope of recovering the Blackshale from Cotgrave "under" Cliftons "take" would have been out of the question.
Secondly, most of the seam to the north would have been under built up areas like West Bridgeford and Wilford and the Meadows...
There probably would be other factors no doubt. |
|
|
|
Post by welderpaul on Apr 29, 2012 15:36:24 GMT -5
John - why does flooding prevent the future possible extraction of reserves. I appreciate there would be many millions (?) of gallons of water to pump out and deal with, but if the money was there, could it be done?
Presumably any old roadways would have closed up/collapsed and the shaft filled....if a new shaft was sunk to the lower seams would the old workings directly above need to be drained to remove the risk of water entering the new workings?
Apologies if i sound a bit simple ;D
|
|
|
|
Post by John on Apr 29, 2012 15:50:58 GMT -5
John - why does flooding prevent the future possible extraction of reserves. I appreciate there would be many millions (?) of gallons of water to pump out and deal with, but if the money was there, could it be done? Presumably any old roadways would have closed up/collapsed and the shaft filled....if a new shaft was sunk to the lower seams would the old workings directly above need to be drained to remove the risk of water entering the new workings? Apologies if i sound a bit simple ;D
I'd hate to guess the costs of pumping out too!! Some collieries had hundreds of miles of roadways and worked several seams.
Now collieries like Cotgrave south of Nottingham could possibly be reopened, depending on if the shafts are in good condition, as they started in the lowest seams. The top seams were untouched and many are thick enough to work.
Pumping need only entail dewatering the shafts, which would be done while removing the caps and infill.
Working the deep soft, deep hard, piper, tupton and blackshale from the old main roads would be out of the question.
Most of the North Notts collieries were already having water problems towards their end due to water seeping through old goafs/gobs and seams. There are some good papers on the internet outlining those problems, I'd presume Yorkshire collieries would be in the same boat.
UK seams dip from the outcrop in the west, ( those east of the Pennines that is) to the west at about 5 degrees, so water from old workings would also present problems to new collieries sunk east of the old mining areas.
Lancashire seam dip from east to west. |
|
|
|
Post by welderpaul on Apr 29, 2012 16:09:29 GMT -5
Thanks John - was there any particular order in which seams were worked? lower seams and upwards, or upper seams and downwards? or did they go for the most profitable/easiest won seams first? I've read old mining books that described the process of probing when forming new roadways, headings etc to locate any old workings that may be waterlogged and cause an inrush of water into the works. Was this carried out in the real world? I have never seen it referred to in any NCB literature. How would it work on longwall mining? Presumably probing would never work, or would the roadways each side be probed as they were formed? Sorry, i've hijacked the thread a bit.  |
|
|
|
Post by John on Apr 29, 2012 16:28:41 GMT -5
Thanks John - was there any particular order in which seams were worked? lower seams and upwards, or upper seams and downwards? or did they go for the most profitable/easiest won seams first? I've read old mining books that described the process of probing when forming new roadways, headings etc to locate any old workings that may be waterlogged and cause an inrush of water into the works. Was this carried out in the real world? I have never seen it referred to in any NCB literature. How would it work on longwall mining? Presumably probing would never work, or would the roadways each side be probed as they were formed? Sorry, i've hijacked the thread a bit. Never heard of that one, but probably was done via long hole drilling where the NCB/BC had an idea that old collieries pre map days were located. Lofthouse inrush could have been avoided had they carried out longhole drilling. The old coalowners went for the most profitable seams, ideal would be take the uppermost workable seam and work downwards, but that's the sensible way.. ;D |
|
