The system is part of the new package which the mine near Wollongong in New South Wales plans to install by mid next year.

Eddie McDonough, managing director of Macquarie Manufacturing, said the mono-rail incorporates five concertina modules, one inbye materials management system and an outbye self-contained bolting module.

"The system design is based around 300m of travel to cater for the 2 x 125m pillars plus 50m of retraction scheduling window. The materials management system has an effective travel of around 100m allowing operators to transport conveyor structure, monorail beams and various bits of equipment from the face to the first open cut-through along with materials into the face," McDonough said.

An added feature of the materials management system, similar in format to the design for BHP Billiton's Dendrobium mine, is that the materials management system can be extended under the stageloader interface all the way through to the maingate drive area. This will make it easier to replace relay bars, chock legs and general face equipment.

The mono-rail also incorporates pneumatically powered traction drive units with a combination of a two-wheel and four-wheel drive configuration.

McDonough said the last six months have been buoyant for Macquarie. At the moment the company has on its workshop floor mono-rail systems under construction for the Tahmoor and Dendrobium mines. The systems for Angus Place and West Cliff have just been completed with the next major job on the cards Centennial's Mandalong project.

Macquarie has also just overhauled the mono-rail system that went from South Bulga to Beltana and the system that went from Moonee to Southland.