Colony Development Operation Oil Shale: Mining and Recovery of Oil

The paper begins with a brief history of Colony Development Operation, followed by an overview of the planned commercial mine and plant complex which includes artists' conceptions of the designed layout. The four basic areas of a commercial complex; mining, crushing facilities, processing facilities, and processed shale embanking and revegetating, are presented. The commercial operation, two-bench, room-and-pillar mining system design is described in detail. The mining cycle of drilling, blasting, loading, hauling, scaling, and roof bolting is discussed, as well as the mobile mining equipment which is being designed and will be utilized. Some of the detailed Colony pilot mine engineering testing programs are then introduced, and their effect on the commercial mining of oil shale is enumerated.