Mercer C: Beulah, ND: 1983 Coteau Freedom Coal Mine and 3 B-E 2570

(Satellite, gem, has one of the componies three draglines)

(Satellite, has two of the companies three draglines)

The railroad is BNSF/NP.

"The Freedom Mine delivers approximately 16 million tons of coal per year, making it the largest lignite mine in the United States in deliveries. The Freedom Mine uses three Bucyrus-Erie 2570 draglines for overburden removal and reclaims about 600 acres of land annually" [BasinElectric]

ND Public Service Commission via PrairePublic

NDstudies

Quinn Lickman posted five photos with the comment: "Marion loading a Cat 789 bottom dump. Photos by Michael Hubert."

Jeff Nielsen: James Joe Dewar Beulah North Dakota
Myron Dudenbostel: Nice work! I used to run a Marion 181 M with a 12 cu/yd bucket. What is the size of that bucket?
Don Kesterson: Myron Dudenbostel 27 cubic yard coal bucket.
Dorman Hardesty: Neat, never seen a 789 set up as a belly-dump.
Jeff Nielsen: I learned to be a shovel operator on that very shovel back in the early 80's. 191Marion 62ft.long sticks. Nice shovel to operate.

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James Joe Dewar commented on Quinn's post
Made by Mega Corp, biggest coal hauler ever produced carried 320 tons if memory serves, Bismarck Wy I think Coteau

I found just one dragline and...

Satellite

...and one large shovel.

Satellite

I found more equipment doing reclamation work than mining because they use normal sized equipment for reclamation. This view has a road grader at the top and a dump truck and bulldozer at the bottom.

Satellite

Later I found the other two draglines in a mine southeast of the one that gem documented. I included the old strip that is being covered as well as the new one that is being exposed.

Satellite

Satellite

And the southern most strip has a shovel removing coal.

Satellite

Here is what the mining operation looked like in 2003. The power and gasification plants are in the lower-left corner of this excerpt.

Global Earth, Dec 2003

A tub was replaced in 2018.

This view shows the rails that were coated with beeswax on which the tub was slid out.

4:19 video @ 0:38

The old tub is behind the house and the new one is in front.

4:19 video @ 0:59

2:45 video @ 0:31

3:16 video: most of their coal goes to nearby gasification and power plants. Some of the coal goes to a second power plant by rail.

1:55 video about their third dragline, Frontier. This 2570 came from Illinois. It cost $70m to move it, but that is about half the cost of a new one.

2:29 video of lifting the boom for a new dragline

How many mines are in Mercer Couinty?

safe_image for Shifting ground apparently caused dragline to tilt into pit in Mercer County