Bismarck Tribune

By LAUREN DONOVBy LAUREN DONOVAN

BEULAH - A gigantic dragline working a coal seam at Dakota Westmoreland Mine near Beulah tipped precariously forward when ground beneath it crumbled away.

The incident happened about 5 a.m. Sunday at the mine pit south of Beulah on the east side of Highway 49.

The dragline is named the "Queen Bee" and weighs about 9 million pounds.

Mine general manager Bill Weaver said the dragline tipped about 25 to 30 degrees forward while working the edge of a pit to uncover a coal seam 45 feet below the surface.

The dragline has an operator, an oiler and a groundsman, and no one was injured, though Weaver said the crew was pretty shook up.

"It was kind of an exciting ride," he said.

He said the groundsman alerted the operator to some cracking around the dragline, but by the time the operator started "walking" the dragline backward away from the surface cracks, a loose layer of wet sand gave way 30 feet down.

Weaver said it took about 24 hours to bring the dragline back to level, a process that involves slowly removing the dirt beneath it until it comes to back to a horizontal plane.

He said the mine does core soil to get an idea of stability before positioning the dragline, and this area was extremely compacted.

He said the operator immediately turned off motors on the back of the dragline that convert the electrical source from alternating to direct current.

That prevented any damage to the motors and the dragline, other than a few severed grease lines, came through the incident without serious damage.

It was back in operation Wednesday morning and had been moved slightly further back from the pit.

The Queen Bee was built in 1980, and its boom is built to excavate as far down as 80 feet below grade.

(Reach reporter Lauren Donovan at 888-303-5511, or lauren@;westriv.com.)