A 'MILLENNIAL PHOENIX' IN NORTHEASTERN PENNSYLVANIA: HAZLETON SHAFT CORPORATION'S STATE-OF-THE-ART ANTHRACITE REFUSE PROCESSING FACILITY RISES FROM THE ASHES OF THE OLD SHAFT BREAKER

摘要

Intober, 1998, at about the same time that the landmark Hazleton Shaft breaker in thecity of Hazleton, northeastern Pennsylvania, was burned and razed, the Hazleton ShaftCorporation (HSC) began construction of a new pressing facility to recover fine coal andprepare "pressed culm" from the refuse banks of the old breaker. The facility was completedin the spring of 2000. It is currently producing fine coal for residential, commercial, andindustrial accounts and pressed-culm fuel for the Panther Creek Partners 83-MW power plantin Nesquehoning, Pennsylvania.The HSC facility is situated near the eastern boundary of the former Hazleton ShaftColliery in the Hazleton basin of the Eastern Middle Anthracite field. Ten coalbeds in thePennsylvanian-age Llewellyn Formation were formerly mined at the old colliery. The mostimportant of these was the Mammoth seam (lally up to 30 feet thick). Refuse from severalgenerations of anthracite breakers accumulated on the site from the mid-19th century to about1983, the amount presently existing being estimated at about 19 million tons.The new facility has four heavy-mineral circuits and a capacity (depending on the feedstk) of 250 to 350 tons/hr. An on-site well, 650 feet deep and tapping the lal mine pool at adepth of 480 feet, provides make-up water for a water-recycling system. The heavy-mediacircuits produce standard anthracite in pea, buckwheat, rice, barley, and # 4 sizes, as well aspressed-culm material averaging 7500 BTU/lb in a size range of 13/16ths of an inch by 28mesh. The size of all equipment incorporated in the design has been engineered to press refusebanks where low recovery and high reject result and also to press run-of-mine material wherehigh recovery and low reject are the norm. The latter will allow pressing of coal stripped fromthe north side of the basin after waste banks in this area have been removed.The old colliery site suffers the scars of more than 100 years of past anthracite mining andpressing. As a result of HSC's activities, several deep stripping pits will be filled with wastefrom the pressing facility, sheer highwalls 150 feet high will be regraded after remining, and ahuge refuse bank more than 150 feet high will be removed. At least 600 acres of blasted andbarren landscape will ultimately be reclaimed.