Boney piles

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Boney piles—also called culm, waste coal, gob piles, or slate dumps—are piles of low-coal-content waste from coal mining operations. These waste piles were created from minerals (called tailings) incidentally extracted from underground mines, from partings in the coal seam or from the mine floor and roof. In some instances, the waste was held in piles underground in the mine, only to be brought to the surface if the pile grew too big; other times, the breaker boys picked the waste was picked from the coal in the colliery as it moved on a conveyor belt towards the breaker.

In the United States, mining companies have not been allowed to leave behind abandoned boney piles since the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act was passed in 1977.

[edit] Name

The coal waste goes by many slang names, some of which are specific to certain areas of the world:

• boney comes from bone coal, a British term that originally referred to "coal mixed with ash, because their customers didn't want a product with such poor energy content."[1]
• culm is used solely in the United States' anthracite Coal Region in eastern Pennsylvania.
• gob stands for garbage off bituminous, and originally referred to waste materials inside the underground mines, as well as the above-ground piles.

[edit] Environmental Effects

Boney piles sometimes grew to millions of tons, and, having been abandoned, remain as huge piles today. Boney piles trap solar heat, making it difficult for vegetation to take root; this encourages erosion and creates dangerous, unstable slopes. The piles also create acid rock drainage, which pollutes streams and rivers.

[edit] External links

• Turning coal waste into light, 8 October 2004
• Photo of a typical coal breaker with culm bank
• Breaker Boys and Bony Pickers, 28 November 2006