The presentations will take place at the David L Lawrence Convention Center and there will also be an exhibition.
The sessions on Tuesday, June 5 will begin with a health and safety presentation in the morning. Peabody Energy’s Tim Jackson and Norwest’s Art Sullivan will discuss Risk Management: Techniques and Outcomes.
James Rider and Jay Colinet of NIOSH will then speak on Dust Control on Longwalls – Current Practices, while Challenges of Underground Coal Mining in Hydrogen Sulfide Environments will be presented by Stephen Bessinger, Robert Flegal, Nigel Goff and Michael Harvey.
Wrapping up the morning’s session will be another NIOSH research group – Eric R Bauer, Ellsworth R Spencer, Adam Smith, Roberta L Hudak – which will be speaking on Reducing Noise-Induced Hearing Loss in Longwall Coal Mine Workers: NIOSH’s Approach.
The awards luncheon to be held midday will feature keynote speaker Richard Stickler, who will provide an overview of the future of the industry.
Tuesday afternoon will have a longwall focus, specifically on automation and high productivity.
The Use of Automation on Longwall Faces by Norwest’s Kirk Nobis will be first in the session, followed up by Impact of Automation on Longwall Production – A US Example by Mark Schaeffer of Joy Mining, Landmark Longwall Automation – Broadmeadow Mine by the mine’s general manager Steve Rowland and New Haulage Technology to Increase Gate Road Development by Matt Hagge.
The sessions on Wednesday, June 6 will offer a full schedule of industry topics, again longwall-specific.
Kicking off the morning session on economics and technical issues in longwall mining will be John T Boyd specialist James Kvitkovich, who will offer comment on Longwall Mining Trends and Face Forecast 2007-2012.
Funding and Assessing Financial Performance of High Performance Longwall Systems by Marcus Fetten of OEM giant DBT is next on the agenda, then State of the Art Technology in Mining Communications by Dr George Allekotte of Foundation Coal.
There will also be a case study of the SUFCO Bunker by two experts, Kendall Hales of Sufco and Mike Roberts of Continental Conveyor & Equipment Company.
An SME luncheon will feature National Mining Association representative Hal Quinn, who will speak on The Changing Political Landscape and Implications for the US Coal Industry.
Wednesday afternoon, support systems will be the highlighted topic for those in attendance.
Hilti’s Gerhard Rauch and three Foundation Coal spokespeople (Jack Trackemas, Dr Peter Zhang, and Chester Huff) will present In situ Performance of Hilti OneStep Bolts in Pittsburgh No. 8 Seam Mining Environment.
Longwall Shield and Standing Gateroad Support Designs – Is Bigger Better? will be next, presented by Thomas Barczak and Stephen Tadolini of NIOSH.
Ryan Murray of American Energy’s Century mine will speak to the industry crowd about gateroad development.
Wrapping up the sessions on Wednesday will be Huesker’s Thomas Bailey and Reggie Lamons of Jim Walter Resources, who will be speaking on longwall ground control.
Only a morning session will be held on the event’s final day, and it will have an international focus.
Thursday, June 7’s itinerary centering on emerging technologies will start off with Longwall Top Coal Caving: Australia and the Western World’s First LTCC Face Operation by Austar’s Greg Duncan and Tim Clarke of DBT Australia.
The Development of the Automated Plow Faces in the German Coal Mining Industry
will be discussed by Jürgen Eikhoff of DSK AG.
The final presentations at the biennial exhibition will be given by Klaus Beck and Syd Peng, who will speak on longwall versus shortwall mining, and by Minerales Monclova SA de CV senior engineer and mine modernization manager Mario Santillán and Minerales Monclova SA de CV senior engineer and general operations manager Rogelio Cuevas on How Low Can MIMOSA Go in Mining Lower Coal Seams? An Implementation of an Automated Plow Long Wall System in Mine VI of Minerales Monclova, Sabinas Basin, México.
Keep watching International Longwall News for coverage from the event.
