Abstract: A mining apparatus of the type in which a mining machine excavates a mining face, especially a coal face in a subterranean mining application, and has a plurality of emitters of electromagnetic waves of different character diverging toward receivers on the individual walking props. The walking props are provided with a control unit which, in response to leading and trailing zones of the respective magnetic beams and/or an overlap region of the two beams, causes the advance of the walking prop as the mining machine travels past it to follow the excavation of the mining face.