The document discusses dragline operation in surface mining. It describes how draglines are well-suited for mining flat, thick coal seams with uniform overburden depth. Planning dragline operation involves selecting equipment mixes, cutting sequences, coal evacuation, dewatering, and minimizing rehandling. General methods for working with a dragline include developing a boxcut using shovels and dumpers followed by extracting in strips or cuts using techniques like advance benching or extended benches. Blasting can aid dragline extraction by loosening hard material. Extended bench methods provide advantages like faster cycle times and higher production.