Lignite Committee Update 
By Cody Combs,
Chairman, Lignite Committee Chair

Greetings everyone. First and foremost, I would like to take a moment to introduce myself and share a little background information as I recently become 2020 Lignite Committee Chair. I have been the Production Manager at Luminant’s Kosse Mine for the past eight years and have been employed with Luminant for a total of 13. I graduated from Texas Tech University in 2006 and began my career with Luminant in 2007. Aside from working, my wife and I have three extremely active children that keep us rather busy when it comes to dance competitions and baseball tournaments. We often joke at the end of the day that this is what keeps us young.

Now on to the real reason of why I am here. From the Lignite Committee perspective, we would like to focus our efforts in 2020 on gaining participation to help share industry Best Practices, MSHA focus points, as well as technology and innovation strategies. This committee has the unique opportunity to glean learnings from one another as we discuss the ever-changing world of technology as we enter the “technology age” to help make our operations safer and more efficient. At Luminant Kosse Mine we are utilizing our drone fleets on a weekly basis from a safety perspective to reacclimate employees to the areas they will be working in, mine planning, and drainage/pump planning. This type of technology gives us a unique perspective that cannot be achieved from equipment or pickup cabs and helps us tremendously with a bird’s eye view of the mine and our mining efforts. Our drone flight videos are shared in our crew start up room and are updated weekly to encourage conversation about progression and hazards that may exist and help answer questions as they arise.

I encourage you to seek information about how you can become involved with the TMRA Lignite Committee. I look forward to the many opportunities to make our industry safer, more reliable, and better than ever as new and innovative technologies grow.