Continuous Miner production ONE CONTINUOUS MINER CAN MINE:
5 TONS OF COAL A MINUTE
That is 300 TONS AN HOUR
IN 20 HOURS THAT IS 6000 TONS
IN A 25 day MONTH THAT IS 150,000 TONS
IN 6 MONTHS THAT IS 900,000 TONS !!!!!!
AND THAT IS ONE MACHINE
Each machine requires about 38 hours maintenance every 1.5 million tons.
So with ONLY three Machines we should easily reach our 3 million tons.
Now this is maximum production, plus there is down time, moving conveyors, changing shifts, etc, But we still should be able to do 3 million tons with 5 machines.
So even it takes the rest of this year to iron out all the logistics of conveyors, portals etc, we are well on our way to 3 million tons by 2013 and most likely 2012. The spur is the real important issue in actually getting that volume of coal to market.
So hopefully with the new cash we will be laying ties and rail in a few of months.