‘It’s in my blood’
Donkin marks one-year anniversary of coal production
Coal miner Wyatt Scheller has discovered another special commodity underground at Donkin Mine — brotherhood.
“We have each other’s backs and that’s the most important thing,” said Wyatt, 25, of Lingan, a roof bolt operator.
“It’s hard to explain to someone who hasn’t been down there but it’s comparable to the military where they take care of each other.” For Scheller, who works the mine face every day, it’s a secure job as well as a chance to become a fourth-generation coal miner at the mine where his father Wayne Scheller is also employed.
“It’s in my blood,” he said Scheller. “When I go underground I feel like that’s where I’m supposed to be. I love the whole experience, everything about it.”
Scheller graduated from Cape Breton University in 2014 with a bachelor of arts in community
studies, then worked in Calgary as a bricklayer for a year. After hearing about Donkin mine, he packed up and returned home.
Never underground in a mine before, he wasn’t sure what to expect at first.
“The one thing I remember was how eerie it was, just the sound and the noise from the fans and the smell,” he said.
“However, I know as soon as they opened the doors and we went underground I thought it was the coolest thing in the
world.”
Scheller said the continuous miner machine goes in and cuts the coal — about 20 feet at a time — and when it backs out the roof bolter moves into the spot that was just cut.
“We put up the primary roof support,” said Scheller, who is also a member of the mine rescue team.
“Yes, I love my job. I even love it more and more every day actually.”
On Tuesday, Kameron Coal celebrated the first-year anniversary
of coal production from Donkin mine.
Donkin mine vice-president Shannon Campbell said it feels more like three weeks.
“It’s been a real busy year building the mine.”
Campbell said overall they are happy looking back to when the project began in 2015, having a good safety record and a workforce starting to mature with skills that keep improving.
Although they were hoping to be further along productivity wise, he’s confident that’s coming.
“We’re working with the Department of Labour to get additional equipment approved and the revisions to the mine plan approved that we know will increase our productivity.”
Campbell said next set of revisions will really change the mine plan.
“Up until now it is a single section room and pillar coal mine testing the ground conditions and testing the mining method,” he said.
“We are going from test mining into a formal mine plan. Over the next two years we will see the true productive capacity of Donkin start to come to the fore.”
In November, the mine announced 49 layoffs, leaving 71 employees. Campbell said one of the main issues was the equipment was not suited to the conditions encountered underground.
Since new equipment was brought in, the mine has performed better and they’ve been able to rehire some workers.
“From our previous workplace reduction until now we’ve increased our employees by approximately 20, of which 15 were prior employees. Almost all those positions
are specific to underground, a few are surface positions for the plant.”
The mine is working on securing customers and testing of coal is underway.
“We’ve had vessels leave the port of Sydney destined for overseas
customers trying our coal as
well,” Campbell said.
The first vessel arrived in October, a second came in December and a third was here in this month.
Campbell said Donkin coal has some attractive properties as well as some drawbacks, but can compete with some U.S. coal in established
markets.
One holdback was seismic testing mine officials had to put on hold after fishermen expressed concerns.
Campbell said they are creating a fishermen’s liaison committee.
“We are going to talk about all kinds of things and that is going to be one of the topics of discussion.”
In the meantime, employees at the plant include Scheller’s father Wayne Scheller, who wears many hard hats but is currently hiring for the plant.
“A lot of what I do is compliance in health and safety,” said the elder Scheller, who has 25 years in the industry and whose grandfather and father were coal miners.
“This has been a labour of love for me,” he said. “I know how important this mine and this project is to the area.“
And now that his family legacy can continue and his son has become a fourth-generation miner, he said he couldn’t be prouder.
“I couldn’t be prouder to watch him and the rest of the young people, the whole crew. Everyone has each other’s back, they are a family and it’s a real pleasure to see that develop.”
Shamus MacDougall, of Donkin, is training as a miner operator. The 25-year-old previously worked at a shipyard in Halifax and said he enjoys his new job.
“My first day I was feeling a little nervous but it’s all real good here.”