Tower Colliery Statistics

We are currently cutting coal at a depth of half a mile from the surface.
We are working coal faces in the "five feet" and "seven feet" coal seams, which come together here.
The current face is 4.5km from pit bottom, under the old Glyncorrwg Colliery's "nine feet" workings.
Tower’s shaft is 161m deep and about 5m in diameter. The two cages, which carry people (and materials) to pit bottom, have two decks each, with a capacity of twelve people per deck. The cages have four guide ropes, each with a winding rope of 32mm. The winding rope has a safety factor of 15, meaning the rope is able to hold 15 times the weight of the full cage.
15 miles of roadway are open at a time, the maximum we can ventilate.
It takes an hour and a quarter to reach the face from pit bottom and 45 minutes to come out, manriding part of the way, where possible.
In a 300m metre face, the coal cutter will take a cut of coal off the face in 40-50 minutes.
A cut yields approximately 50% saleable coal from "run of mine".
The conveyor belts can move up to 600 tonnes of coal per hour.
One million Gallons of water are pumped from the workings each day and allowed to settle in the Braithwaite tank. The water is then passed through filters, as it is piped down the Drift for use in fire fighting, if needed and in dust suppression.
The Tower curtilage is 14.8km in circumference. It has an area of 221.3 hectares.

TowerColliery Statistics