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| 'Longest conveyor belt' launched | 'Longest conveyor belt' launched |
| (about 1 hour later) | |
| A conveyor belt for coal which is believed to be the longest of its kind in Europe is set to be launched. | A conveyor belt for coal which is believed to be the longest of its kind in Europe is set to be launched. |
| The 13km (8 miles) belt will transport coal from the Glenmuckloch open cast mine near Kirkconnel, Dumfriesshire, to a railhead in New Cumnock, Ayrshire. | |
| The belt cost almost £10m to build and will save 50,000 lorry journeys, or two million road miles a year. | The belt cost almost £10m to build and will save 50,000 lorry journeys, or two million road miles a year. |
| It travels at 2.8m per second and takes 73 minutes for the coal to travel from mine to railway. | It travels at 2.8m per second and takes 73 minutes for the coal to travel from mine to railway. |
| It has been developed with Scottish Executive support by ATH Resources, which owns and operates five open cast coalmines in East Ayrshire and Dumfriesshire. | It has been developed with Scottish Executive support by ATH Resources, which owns and operates five open cast coalmines in East Ayrshire and Dumfriesshire. |
| It will keep an awful lot of traffic off the road - 50,000 lorry movements a year Tom AllchurchATH chief executive | |
| ATH Chief Executive Tom Allchurch said it would make a big difference to both the company and the area around the mines. | |
| "It is the culmination of an awful lot of hard work to bring off a major project which will be beneficial for the local environment around our operations," he said. | |
| "It will keep an awful lot of traffic off the road - 50,000 lorry movements a year." | |
| The belt is capable of carrying 500 tonnes of coal an hour along its route. | |
| "It runs over the top of a hill and through another of our sites, down the hill and into a rail loading facility," said Mr Allchurch. | |
| He said one of the main beneficiaries would be the town of New Cumnock which would no longer see the coal lorries passing through. |