Triton Coal - North Rochelle Mine
- Owner: Triton Coal Company
- Project: Coal Handling, Storage, and Train Loadout System
- Location: North Rochelle Mine, Gillette, Wyoming
- Scope: Engineering, Procurement, Construction, Startup and Commissioning
Project Background
Roberts & Schaefer Company was awarded a turnkey contract from Triton Coal Company for engineering, procurement, construction, start-up and commissioning of the coal handling, storage, and train loadout system at Triton Coal Company’s North Rochelle Mine in Gillette, Wyoming. The system was successfully completed and in operation in 1999.
The coal handling system is designed to receive raw coal from 240-ton dump trucks with material size of 8” x 0”. The receiving hoppers have a capacity of 535 tons. The hoppers feed two feeder breakers rated at 2,000 TPH each that feed the transfer conveyor to the crusher station. A 4000 TPH roll crusher reduces the coal to 2” x 0”. The coal is then fed to a 7,000-foot long overland conveyor rated at 4,000 TPH.
The overland conveyor conveys the coal to a traveling tripper conveyor at the coal storage barn. The traveling tripper discharges the coal to the slot storage coal barn with a capacity of 50,000 tons. Coal is reclaimed from the storage barn with 26 vibratory feeders with a rated capacity of 800 TPH each, of which 10 are variable rate. The vibratory feeders feed the loadout conveyor rated at 6,000 TPH, which in turn feeds, the loadout system. The batch weigh dual hopper loadout system incorporates a 300-ton surge bin and a 140-ton weigh bin to load unit trains at a capacity of 6,000 TPH.
All areas of the coal handling system are provided with bag house dust collectors. An train-loadout sampling system is provided. A programmable logic controller (PLC) and operator interface terminal (OIT), located in the loadout structure, control the entire system from truck dump to loadout system. Ancillary systems include washdown, ash/moisture analyzers, air compressors, and sump pumps.