Dear Editor:

Your feature article, entitled "Strata Mechanics of Pillar Mining at the Crandall Canyon Mine," by W.G. Parseau, published in the August 2015 edition, represents an extreme disservice to our SME and to the Murray Energy Corporation.

The information published in the article is very stale and flat out wrong. Mr. Parseau’s conclusions are highly complicated, very hypothetical, and his calculations have been proven wrong. It seems that everyone knows this except SME and Mining Engineering. It is wrong to see fallacious machinations continue to be published eight (8) years after the event and at least two years since they have been proven to be false.

The facts are that, unknowingly to anyone, the Crandall Canyon Mine represented a trap from longwall mining conducted many years before Murray Energy’s acquisition thereof, as a result of the close proximity to the very major Joe’s Valley Fault. It was only a matter of time until that entire area would collapse as a result of the Joe’s Valley Fault and those faults extending from it. The collapse had nothing to do with the very focused, theoretical miscalculations of Mr. Pariseau on the actual mining itself. Mining with one continuous miner unit did not allow the entire mountain to collapse, as it did.

Perhaps SME and Mining Engineering should better research the material before it is published. At a minimum, you should contact the owner of the property for correct input before you publish and damage them.

Robert E. Murray
Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer
Murray Energy Corporation