ALKOL, W.Va. — A very large piece of equipment that has played a significant role in the West Virginia coal industry in the last three decades will soon be turned off for the final time on top of a Boone County mountain.
The dragline known as Big John will no longer be needed at the former Hobet 21 surface mining site with mining done and reclamation nearly completed. Big John weighs nearly 8 million pounds and is 18 stories high, according to site owner ERP Compliant Fuels CEO Ken McCoy.
“So it’s huge and it can move 80-some cubit yards in a single scoop and swing it the length of two football fields. It is exponentially more efficient than any other piece of equipment,” McCoy said.
For more than 30 years the dragline slowly ‘walked’ on the Hobet mining site clearing the overburden so the thin seam of coal could be removed in the mountaintop mining removal process.
“Much of this mountain could not have have been mined had it not been for that dragline,” McCoy said. “For 32 straight years, seven days a week, we’ve seen that machine move and finally it’s out of places to mine and it will be parked.”
The dragline has also been a target of controversy because of its involvement in mountaintop removal and the valley fill process. There have been no new permits for similar projects for several years.
The dragline has been used in the reclamation of the Hobet property in recent months. The process should conclude within the month. The state then hopes to market the Hobet property for economic development.
Meanwhile, Big John may have another life, McCoy said.
“We had a company in from Morocco that are phosphate miners that have a desire perhaps to buy it, take it to Morocco and perhaps it will live again, we certainly hope so,” he said.