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Centennial charts road to success

A SERIES of investor presentations from Centennial Coal has revealed interesting insight into the...

Angie Tomlinson
Centennial charts road to success

Newstan

Newstan currently operates at a longwall width of 220 metres, an extraction height of 3.2 metres to four metres, length of 2.2 to 3.7 kilometres and block tonnes of two to four million.

Mine management are currently investigating wider faces, increasing from 220 to 270 metres. This will be worked in conjunction with re-orientation of faces – perpendicular to structures - and increased length and tonnage of longwall blocks.

What should result is an increased ratio of longwall to development coal.

Over the next six months Newstan will cut costs by reducing development units from three to two. Employee numbers will also be reduced from 250 to 229 over the next 12 months.

Other cost saving measures have been the long term investments in a new Joy 7LS2a shearer and two new Voest Alpine ABM25’s, which will help in reducing maintenance costs.

Centennial are also reassessing alternative longwall areas with a lower height but improved coal quality and a review of marketing strategy – with a move to increased semi-soft sales.

The end result will be a target of four million ROM tonnes per year, 13 kilometres of development per year, 18,000 tonnes plus per man per year, and three million plus tonnes per block.

Mandalong

Mandalong holds marketable reserves of more than 60 million tonnes of high quality, low sulfur thermal coal. The ramp-up of the new mine is slated for January 2005.

Centennial have been blessed in several ways with the Mandalong development – although it is new the Centennial team will be operating in a familiar geological environment, the mine has favourable development conditions and they can lever off existing infrastructure at Cooranbong and Newstan.

The longwall orders for the mine were finalised in March this year, with the primary contract going to Joy Mining Machinery. Macquarie Manufacturing were contracted by Joy to supply the monorail system with material handling system and Repower Mining International will supply the pump station. Ampcontrol will complete the site electrics for the Colliery.

Springvale

Project investments now and for the future at the Springvale longwall include a new ventilation shaft and services totaling about $10 million, longwall face widening to 305 metres for $12 million and a conveyor to Wallerawang Power Station for $2.1 million.

In the future Springvale will look at lease extensions and aim at output of 2.5 to three million tonnes per annum. The mine currently produces 2.3Mtpa.

Angus Place

2003/04 was a busy year for Angus Place with the implementation of revised management structure and work roster, design and installation of a high capacity coal clearance system and consolidation of operations in the Southern lease area.

Development of the Southern area include changing block size to more than 3.5 kilometres long to produce longwall blocks of 3.5 to four million tonnes.

The mine is also looking at potential open-cut opportunities at Wolgan Road and Neubecks Creek.

Better synergies with the Springvale mine are planned for Angus Place, which will include addressing coal distribution and technical, geology and environmental services issues. There is also the potential for warehouse/stores and waste water management combining.

The Angus Place team are also completing major overhauls of the development equipment and are looking to better manage floor conditions through concrete in the gateroads.

Clarence

At Clarence Colliery Centennial plan to increase output by two unit shifts per day. It will also target cost effective improvements including a 301 recovery and belt system and a new 12CM12D.

Output in 2006/07 is forecast at 2.5 million tonnes with 138 employees.

The team is also looking to automate coal sizing to increase market options.

Berrima

At Berrima, which currently produces 217,000 tonnes annually, Centennial plan to effectively manage the mine within the constraints of a one unit operation.

The mine plans to optimize the use of the 12CM12 and introduce scheduled maintenance to improve reliability.

Alternative markets will also be explored.

Charbon Colliery

Planned improvements at Charbon include an additional production crew on dayshift, super panel development at all times, an upgrade of the crusher/sizer and a relocation of services to a third entry.

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