The mine is just 500 to 1,000 feet below the surface, but it's a three-mile trip, on a horizontal plane, to get to where miners are working. They do the work with continuous mining machines, remote control diggers that use rotating drums with steel teeth that cut through coal and rock, with water sprays that reduce coal dust in the air. A continuous miner can dig and load that six tons in less than 30 seconds. As soon as one takes its load and leaves, another is there to take its place. Pittston has laid off thousands of workers in the past couple decades, and mine employment in Virginia's coalfields is dropping, even though the state's coal production reached record levels two years ago.
Mechanization means coal companies can dig more coal with fewer workers.
During World War II, it took thousands of miners for Pittston's corporate predecessor, Clinchfield Coal, to produce 2.3 million tons of coal in a year. Another Laurel Mountain miner, Nolan Stanley, also has lived with layoffs in the past. But he can't imagine doing anything else. Back when I started in mines, that was the main thing to do. Mine superintendent Barry Compton, who grew up in Dickenson County, is a third-generation company man.