Mountaintop Removal
The most dramatic example of strip mining to extract underground coal is the process of removing the entire top of a mountain, the "overburden" above the valuable seam(s) of coal. The thin layer of mountain soil is stockpiled for later mine reclamation efforts - but it's not economic to replace the vast quantities of the sandstone and shale when the whole top of a mountain is removed, restoring the approximate original contour. Instead, the rock is dumped in a nearby valley and also covered with soil.
In addition to reducing the cost of extracting the coal, the process creates flat land. Literally, the mountains are laid low and the valleys are raised high...
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Links
Coal in Virginia
Southwest Virginia
Virginia Places