The Register-Herald, Beckley, West Virginia

Archive

mttop

A dragline operates at a mountaintop mining site in Mingo County. Mountaintop mining completely removes all of the overburden that covers a seam of coal, yielding a 100 percent recovery rate. Movement of the dirt on a site is carefully coordinated, not performed in a willy-nilly fashion. Miners try not to move a section of dirt more than one time.