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Show i New Coal Preparation Plant i : - : -rTT ' - "" jr ."?' .-y -t- . JHwwry---' " .. ... 5 ' - - r y - i 1 I ' ft ' ' s . ' J Utt - rs-2??iuf j r S i s t-r.-- i '..- ' ' ' i f . -r - i . vu. I . ,f f i Nature in one of its more gener-i gener-i us moods endowed large areas in East Centra Utah with beds of coal estimated to contain 196,000,-000,000 196,000,-000,000 tons. These beds, in general, gener-al, are horizontal or nearly so, are from a few Inches up to twenty or more feet In thickness, and are underlain un-derlain and covered with layers of sandstone. The sandstone and other material covering these beds is from a few hundred up to 2,000 or 3,000 feet in thickness. In its struggle for continued existence ex-istence and against the Inroads of competitive fuels, the coal industry has found it necessary to adopt the latest developments in machinery for mining and preparing this coal for the ultimate consumers. Large "cutting machines" literally saw the coal into large blocks. These are then drilled and blasted. Huge "loading machines" are next moved into the rooms and by means of them the coal is loaded into mine cars and hauled to the surface by powerful electric locomotives. Crews of skilled workmen are required re-quired In these operations. Gone beyond all recognition are the tree3 and vegetal matter that were the origin of these coal beds, but still recognizable are the streaks of what millions of years ago were layers of clay and silt in this vegetal matter but which through the ages have been compacted com-pacted and now are called "partings" "part-ings" and "bony". These partings and bony are waste products, In that they have little fuel value. For many years coal was sold as "run of mine" or separated into a few sizes by screening, the partings part-ings and bony being removed only from the larger sizes to such extent ex-tent as was possible by hand picking. pick-ing. Helping Utah to hold Its position as- an important coal producing state, and also to meet the demand for many different sizes of clean coal, the United States Fuel Company Com-pany has adopted the best practices prac-tices of the eastern and mid-central coal fields in the preparation of its coal. Its new preparation plant at Hiawatha just completed late in 1938 and the only one of its kind in the Utah field is pictured above and contains the very latest in coal preparation equipment. An interesting feature In this new plant is that all of the coal which will pass through a 5-inch round opening actually is washed with water, which enables these waste products to be removed not only from the large sizes but also from the small sizes. The facilities provided for separating the washed product into a number of sizes, for drying, for waxing to eliminate dust, and for remixing any or all of the sizes, enables the Company to produce all of the sizes of coal desired both by Industrial In-dustrial and domestic users.. This progressive step augurs well for the future of Utah's coal Industry, Indus-try, and the United States Fuel Company is to be complimented on its foresight and initiative. |