41. These large machines were used for removal of overburden on, for example, opencast coal sites. 42. A short stretch has now reopened between Thornton and Earlseat to carry coal from the opencast mine. 43. The National Coal Board reclaimed land near the closed collieries by opencast methods between 1970 and 1974. 44. A gold vein must have been discovered here, because there is a large opencast below the tank. 45. The opencast coalmine on the south side of the valley has been turned into Garnant Park golf club. 46. Lalmatia Collieryhas now been renamed as Rajmahal Opencast Project under Rajmhal Group of Mines of Eastern Coalfields Ltd. 47. To the north the ridge broadens out into Merthyr Common, an area heavily altered by opencast coalmining. 48. It at present owns 105 operating mines, of which 81 are underground and 24 are opencast mines. 49. In 1981, Wirtgen built the first surface miners for opencast mining and routing operations in hard rock. 50. The opencast mining moved into the fields to the west of the house and continued into the early 1950s.
