Sample Mine, West Virginia

The Patriot Coal Company's Sample Mine may be the largest surface mine in West Virginia, with an output of 5.5 million tons of coal annually. This is a mountaintop removal mine, the Appalachian equivalent of the open pit and surface mines of the West, that is typical in southern West Virginia. The coal industry increasingly uses dynamite and crane-like earthmoving machines known as draglines to displace dirt from mountaintops and expose the coal seams below. The fill is then dumped into adjacent valleys. In the early 1980s, a typical valley fill contained about 250,000 cubic yards of rock and dirt. With the expanded use of draglines and larger trucks, fills can now contain 100 million cubic yards or more. In the West Virginia, more than 300,000 acres of forest have been felled and 470 miles of streams have been buried by mountaintop removal operations. In 2012, as the result of a lawsuit filed by various environmental groups, Patriot Coal agreed to phase out the use of strip mining in West Virginia over a number of years. Under the terms of the settlement, although Patriot is allowed to continue some smaller projects, they are enjoined from applying for new leases as they expire, and must impose a cap on surface production.