PITMEN have won a vital race against mother nature to bring in a new ventilation system inside four months and keep production on the move. The main focus at Welbeck is on recovering coal from the last production faces in the Deep Soft. But the pit also knew that if they failed to install a new booster fan the financial consequences could be dire. For the past five years Welbeck has relied on a booster fan running at Thoresby. Its old Parkgate laterals are virtually opposite where Welbeck's faces are positioned and this has created a twin intake system stretching 6,000 metres enabling air quantities to be maintained at around 65 cubic metres a second.
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