Bucyrus said the Kotinskaya mine was equipped with its shield supports, automation technology and armoured face conveyors.

The original equipment manufacturer said safety was a key issue at the mine in respect to mine gas and coal dust explosion hazards, with the seam susceptible to rock bursts below 180m underground.

“For this reason the mine decided to use Bucyrus shield support units 220/480 with a range of vertical adjustment between 2.2m to 4.8m and a support resistance of 6493 kilonewtons at a pressure of 410 bar,” Bucyrus said.

“The centre distance is 1.75m and the shields are operated by means of the rugged support control system PM 4, which has been used successfully in more than 100 longwall operations around the world for the last 10 years.”

For the 250m longwall face, the mine uses the Bucyrus 4/1132 AFC.

A slope haulage belt conveyor was installed in the entry for transportation to the surface, covering 1400m.

Bucyrus said the Kotinskaya operation had achieved its record output by mining two panels, with the move from one panel into the next being completed in only 35 days.

With both the panels now exhausted, Bucyrus said the current panel 4202 was 2400m long with a seam height of 4.2-4.6m.

“SUEK confirms that the new longwall production record is the result of the joint efforts of the specialists from the mine and the Bucyrus service department.

“SUEK intends to work even closer together with Bucyrus in future in order to achieve the highest possible output from a face at the lowest possible costs per tonne.”

The leading Russian thermal coal producer exported 12.2Mt of coal in the first five months of this year, 11% higher than the same period in 2008, a company executive told Bloomberg.

The Kotinskaya operation has far outpaced SUEK’s other mines, which have not produced more than 3Mtpa.

The mine is located in Kuzbass in Siberia’s Kemerovo region, which has estimated reserves of 631 billion tonnes of coal known for its low sulfur content.