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Well, this summer I was
lucky enough to work as a
coal geologist intern for
Drake Geological Services
under the supervision
of Mike Drake.
He's an alumnus from here, he
got his geology degree here.
He took me in and taught
me the ropes of how to
explore for coal
down in east Texas.
Well you may ask,
"Why do we do this?"
Well, I'm sure everybody
here uses electricity,
we kind of like that.
But we go down and we make sure
we can find enough coal for the
HW Pirkey Plant to keep up
and running, [unclear audio]
east Texas with electricity
so they keep their lights on.
They like to have approximately
a 20-year supply of coal ahead
of them, so they keep digging
in a continuous process.
But we go out with the drill
crews, and we'll pop a hole
in a pre-determined location.
And we'll start with the
rotary log, I've got a
rotary bit right here.
As the cuttings are coming up
through the tube and through
the drill stem, we'll look
at them to determine if we
have enough coal down there.
If there's something good
down there, we want to do
what we call a core sample.
We go down with core bits, and
it will actually bring us up a
nice core, there's a little
holder in there that'll keep it
in place when we pull it
out of the hole.
After we get that, we'll
actually send it off to a
laboratory where
they'll test it.
They'll test it for sulfides,
they'll test it for mercury,
any kind of contaminants
that the power plant
may not want to put into
the air if they have to
change their scrubber systems.
And how we do this, after
the hole is drilled,
there's something called
a geophysical log.
We use a radioactive source,
cesium is what we are using.
And when it goes down and hits
the coal, we can actually see
exactly how thick the seams are
and if there's going to be any
obstacles in the way when the
mining equipment comes in.
So right there where it peaks
out we can see the coal, and it
peaks out to the right so we
know it's a good clean seam.
We can even decide if
there's a rock in the way,
and we have a rock right there,
which will interfere with
drilling when it 
does go on.
We can determine the amount
of silts, clays, and sands
in places for stability.
Just some examples of
what I have here,
what I did this summer.
We have a rotary log where I am
tracking the depth at all times
of the drill crew as the
cuttings come up so we know
what we have, to see if
we actually want a core,
because coring is $30 a
foot when you go down,
as compared to rotary which
is only about $2 a foot.
So the purpose of the geologist
out there is identifying
what they have down there
and also to keep costs down
to make it efficient.
Alright, just some of the
samples I got while we were
mining out there.
We have a piece of lignite
coal, what they're burning
in their power plants.
When we encounter rocks we have
special bits called rock bits
out there, made for grinding,
and it saves some of our
rotary bits because it'll take
the tips right off of them
to get them to
the hard rock.
Just a smaller style of bit
for when we do rotary,
this one here is
for the core.
We do encounter some unusual
things in the ground like
faults, we'll come into cliff
embankments, and we'll also
come into river basins.
The coal will actually die off
and we have to map that out
for them so they know not to
dig there and save themselves
millions of dollars when
it comes to bringing it
out of the earth.
But an example of something
unique we found.
This is called a growth fault,
or a slick and slide.
The sediments actually cause
things to disconform and the
coal to end up somewhere else
where it wasn't supposed to be.
What do I have here, this
is a sample bag, what we
send off to the lab when
we actually get the cores
out of the ground
and clean them up.
And something to look for,
too, to help find the coal,
we have what's called
carbonaceous clay.
It will actually burn, but the
ash content is so high they
don't want to have to worry
about that in the power plant.
So we try to hit the borderline
where the carbonaceous clay
actually meets the
good clean lignite.
Well, that is about all I have
on coal geology and exploration.
Are there any questions?
(male speaker).
Where exactly were you
in east Texas?
(Mr. Hardesty).
A little town, or close to a
little town called Marshall.
(male speaker).
Marshall?
(Mr. Hardesty).
So what we did was a ten-day
drill period out there, it was
ten days on and four days off.
Right now the exploration
is good down there.
We have about 20 to 30
years of exploration left
for this mine company.
So we're trying to find them
good 30 to 1 overburden ratios,
where for every foot of coal
there's less than 30 foot of
overburden they have to remove
to make it economical.
The pay is not too bad,
contract work is between
$750 and $1200 a day for
a geologist himself.
Operating costs, depending on
your diet, is $15 to $20 a day.
Or your helper, you have
to pay for it, so.
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