Dallas –
New series profiles Winfield South Mine’s Cross Pit Spreader System
Luminant’s Winfield South Mine in Titus County, Texas, is taking a starring role in tonight’s episode of the new Discovery Channel series “What a Tool.”
The series profiles massive machines across the country, including the mine’s cross pit spreader system, which stands as tall as a 24-story building, is as long as roughly four football fields and weighs as much as 10 747 commercial airplanes.
“I think viewers are going to be truly amazed at the size of the machinery used to mine lignite for power generation,” said Del McCabe, mine director. “It’s an efficient and impressive operation and one we’re proud to showcase.”
The mine hosted a production crew for two full days last June. The team spoke with equipment operators and mine leadership to learn the ins and outs of the system, which consists of two machines: the cross pit spreader and bucket wheel excavator. The bucket wheel excavator works like a Ferris wheel, using a series of buckets to remove dirt over deep-set coal in advance of the mine’s draglines. The excavator then drops the dirt on the cross pit spreader’s conveyor system to be moved across the mine for use in reclamation.
“The system has the ability to move 20 million cubic yards per year, with a discharge belt that carries dirt at 1,500 feet per minute,” added McCabe. “It takes about one minute for earth to move throughout the entire system. Needless to say, it’s an extremely valuable tool in our mining operation.”
The show is scheduled to run at 9 p.m. and midnight CDT on the Discovery Channel. To get a behind-the-scenes look at the shoot, just visit Luminant’s YouTube channel at www.YouTube.com/LuminantPower.
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About Luminant
Luminant, a subsidiary of Energy Future Holdings Corp., is a competitive power generation business, including mining, wholesale marketing and trading, construction and development operations. Luminant has 17,500 megawatts of generation in Texas, including 2,300 MW fueled by nuclear power and 7,200 MW fueled by coal. An additional 800 MW of coal-fueled generation capacity is under construction and expected to begin commercial operation in 2010. The company is also the largest purchaser of wind-generated electricity in Texas and fifth largest in the United States. EFH is a Dallas-based energy holding company that has a portfolio of competitive and regulated energy subsidiaries, primarily in Texas. Visit www.luminant.com or www.energyfutureholdings.com for additional information.