The control desk !

Because of the fact that all machines etc. underground are computer-controlled or computer-aided, the data have to be dealt with and the processes have to be run. This happens at the control desk.

The control desk is the colliery's "nerve centre" that is in most cases located at the surface. Today it is possible to extract the coal underground without a miner and - except of some special cases - to run the longwall mining area with the computers of the control desk.

The experiences received and the technologies developped because of  this are the base for a mining industry that can hardly be imagined today: Miners are nearly no longer needed and can leave the mining areas after having prepared them. The extraction runs automatically and by that coal production is possible in a depth where today miners cannot work because of the high temperatures. If you consider that the coal reserves are getting deeper and deeper the more you move northwards (under the north sea the hard coal seams are situated in a depth of nearly 4.000 metres), you see that this is the key to a future mining industry.

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