Average miner produces 7 tons of coal a day. That is $700 or about 200,000 a year in production. Ofcourse the miner only takes home 40-50k. (assuming labor regulations)
The average US coal miner makes about $80k, considering they mostly lived in inexpensive places, that’s pretty good pay. I can’t imagine a job that I’d rather have less though
Some make it a longgg time. A few of my wife’s relatives were active miners and lived into their late 80’s and early 90’s. Rough life though. And that specific area has decent hospitals. Go figure .
That’s amazing. Every miner in my family history didn’t make it past 60ish, if that. Decent hospitals too! I mean they also drank a ton but when you mine 🤷
So they create ~$700 directly through their physical labour, but only receive $300? Why? That's $400 missing, and there are hundreds of him at the company. Who decides what to do with the extra 40 thousands of dollars every day?
Those places are inexpensive to live in because there isn't a whole lot around. When you have to drive 100 miles to the nearest college, and 50 miles to the nearest hospital bigger than a Whole Foods, of course it is cheaper to live there. Add in the poison water supply in some coal mining towns and cost of living goes way down until you die of cancer.
Open cut is referring to mining from the surface. Basically, remove all the garbage earth that is above the coal. Then remove the coal, and once the coal is gone, you put the garbage material back.
It's all done using a fleet of heavy machinery, and you can't really quantify a "tonnage per person" in the same sense as you can in this video.
Ah, it also involve a lot of explosives, right? I asked because the comment about 7 tons never said how many tons are extracted in total per year, just per worker.
Hey mate, yeah so, it does involve Drilling and blasting. So our site has (and you can look these up) for moving Dirt and Coal: 2 Draglines, 2 Rope Shovels, 8 Excavators (of multiple sizes, Leibherr 9800, 9600, 996 and others) and around 50 Trucks of varying size, mostly Ultraclass and slightly smaller, ( Komatsu 930e, Cat 797, 794ac, 793). Including maintenance it's around 700 workers, including staff and Maintenance. It's pretty incredible stuff, you should check it out.
Underground mining doesn't really use explosives much anymore, if at all. At least for salt, I'm not sure about coal, although I assume they use similar methods.
This is not the "average", this is some unregulated illegal mine. This shit has been completely mechanized for the past half century in developed countries.
Not average coal miner….if they work in a depressed area I’m sure that’s close to what they make right now but most coal miners I know have a base salary of around 90 to 100k and have the option to work more up to around 150k. It’s hard work but they aren’t servants. The majority have good jobs.
It looks like you take 7 tons and the whole cavern will collapse. For sure they know how to do this, the most of fatalities in coal mines are related to methane explosions, not to usual extraction.
Carrying it out and loading I think the record was 66 tons in a day (24hrs) with 15+ being standard for experienced miners per shift. About 1 pallet worth per ton. It is certainly doable.
Mines that use heavy machinery make money. What you're seeing here does not. You're only seeing it dumped on the ground, that still has to be taken out of that mine and brought to a buyer. What you're seeing here is not how mining is done in the US or by any large outfit. These are free lancers.
It is still vastly profitable. Moreso in places with less well off economies. You cant always fit heavy machinery deep down, or need to create spaces for it.
Pneumatic hammer drills are definitely used by large outfits. But so are these huge machines on wheels that have a grinding wheel at the end of them. Then other machines that come in on wheels are remove the coal. Often conveyor belts are setup that remove the coal as it's mined. Some machines mine, collect and transport the coal all in one. When you see people dumping coal on the ground with their hands and hammer drills, you are seeing free lance work
No, it is not profitable. Especially not vastly. For all the reasons I mentioned. You are skipping a lot of overhead costs in your math. That coal that's dumped on the ground? That needs to be moved to a buyer. The property the coal is on has to be owned by someone, and they likely charge a fee. And then the income they make is taxed. Apply all of that to your 700 a day logic. There is pennies to be made this way. Most likely the economy they live in is so shitty that a penny goes a long way.
This is akin to why Africans burn plastic off of computer parts in dumps to scrap metal. That's not profitable. But the pennies it makes can maybe get them food where they live.
Once you get out in the country, land gets very cheap. You can about 4000 tons/acre and are probably buying the land at anywhere from $2-8000. Cleaning and shipping said coal costs around $30/ton.(this figure includes mining, but to be generous).
No that isn't how the math is done. Their is labor in picking up those rocks and moving them out of the mine. That is much more than $30 a ton without machines. You are looking at figures that apply to large outfits, not these guys.
Edit: When you don't have machines, those clumps get picked up with hands and wheel barrows. The time and labor that goes into that is time and labor spent not mining. That means less coal mined a day by weight. This is also a loss in profits.
Without machines? They are using a jackhammer, and a cart with a rope/motor is all easy enough to source and making tunnels slope properly is all old tech. A ton is about a pallet worth. If they are just chipping away at the vein, they could break down way more than 7 tons a day. Record for loading coal is 66 tons in a day. Shovels are a thing too.
No. They may be using a rope cart and motor but that isn't I'm this video. Even then, they are not nearly as productive as you seem to think they are. The weight of those rocks need to be lifted by hand into the cart with the setup they have here. This is what you're missing.
You can also just use your head, look at the video, and realize these guys are not making anywhere near 40,000 usd a year. They are dirt poor. After taxes and other overhead the money they do make has to be split up between everyone in this operation. There are 4 people in the video alone.
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u/Loud_Interview4681 8d ago
Average miner produces 7 tons of coal a day. That is $700 or about 200,000 a year in production. Ofcourse the miner only takes home 40-50k. (assuming labor regulations)