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For the miners it is a pity that there is not only coal
underground, but also rocks. These rocks are brought to the surface, because it
cannot be avoided to extract them during the production of the hard coal or during the
preparation of the roadways. Because of the high technology used in the German mining
industry, today it is possible to reduce the share of spoil to 30 % of the production - but if
6.000 tons of coal are produced per day, there are still about 2.000 tons of spoil to be
stored somewhere.
In the picture you can see a spoil heap in
Bergkamen (Germany). An average spoil heap is built of 25 to 30 million tons of
spoil and it takes about 25 years to build it. Before the first lorry of rocks
has been brought to a spoil heap, the planning for the following place where the
spoil will be stored in the future begins, yet.
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