Feature Stories
Liebherr and Its Expanding Engine Business
January 10, 2019
Gebhard Schwarz, managing director, Liebherr-Component Technologies, talks about the division’s many engine developments and deals The Liebherr Group in Switzerland, now a US$11.16 billion (€9.845 billion) family-owned manufacturer and service provider, is spread across 11 product divisions covering construction, mining
Indiana in the Center of War Between Natural Gas and Coal
January 7, 2019
President Trump has made it abundantly clear by word and by deed that the war on coal launched by President Obama is coming to an end. The announcement last year that the Environmental Protection Agency would replace the Clean Power
Minnesota’s Iron Range Cities Ready to Welcome Mining Revival
January 4, 2019
At the new Boomtown Woodfire restaurant in this Iron Range city, diners can order the Steelworker prime rib with a Mesabi’s Best beer and, as the menu states, pay homage to the miners who dug the state’s mining industry out
University of Kentucky Research Team Extracts Rare Earth Elements
December 28, 2018
A University of Kentucky-led research team is operating a pilot-scale processing plant in Webster County that may hold the key to mining rare components of common electronics in the heart of coal country. Rick Honaker, a professor of mining engineering
Chinese Technology Could Unite Illinois Coal Mines and Power Plants
December 27, 2018
For years, coal trains from Wyoming’s Powder River Basin have snaked through Illinois delivering millions of tons of fuel to power plants that, in the case of Vistra Energy Corp.‘s Coffeen power plant, are just a few miles from the
Westray Mine Survivor Tells His Story of Survival, Recovery, and Solidarity
December 18, 2018
Vern Theriault wasn’t working the night shift at Plymouth, Nova Scotia’s Westray mine when the methane gas and coal dust that had been allowed to accumulate in the mine’s tunnels due to management negligence exploded on May 9, 1992. If
A New Coal Mine is Opening in Pennsylvania. Is Trump to Thank?
December 18, 2018
Tom Maziekas’ house in Mahanoy City faces a row of empty lots. Rowhomes once stood there, but they suffered the fate of many buildings in this once-booming coal town in northeastern Pennsylvania: a fire, then rubble, now blight. Scenes like
Rulmeca Rolls Into New Space in Wilmington, North Carolina
December 17, 2018
A Wilmington-based company that produces motorized pulleys for a variety of markets has moved into a new, larger space to meet an increasing demand for its products. Rulmeca Corp. President Michael Gawinski and Operations Director Jay Graham have grown the
This Earth Day, Let’s Accept the Critical Role Fossil Fuel Plays in Energy Needs
December 10, 2018
Since its inception in 1970, Earth Day (April 22) has been a strange mix — a celebration of springtime and the great outdoors, combined with doom-and-gloom prophecies of destruction, centering on overpopulation, pollution and capitalism. But because Earth Day is
Montana Tech’s Underground Mining Class Takes Students Beneath the Surface
December 4, 2018
On a recent Wednesday afternoon, two men hopped out of the Bobcat ATV they’d parked on the western edge of Montana Tech’s campus. The men adjusted their work belts and hard hats then walked through the entrance of what looked
