Published in the December 2007 American Longwall Magazine
After six and a half years of gaining certifications, undergoing inspections and commissioning, the Asian American Coal (AACI) joint venture was finally given the green light to produce 4 million tonnes of coal per annum from its Daning mine in China's Shanxi Province.
In July Shanxi Asian American Daning-Energy Company (56% owned by AACI) earned its production licence to mine 4Mtpa from the mine. Management plans not to waste any time and is full steam ahead planning output of 3Mt this year.
Daning, near Jincheng City, 580km south-west of Beijing, is unique in its status as the first modern day, foreign invested coal mining joint venture in the People's Republic of China. AACI chief operating officer Ron Hite believes its unique status is for good cause.
"We are the only people doing it for a reason. You need a tremendous amount of patience because there are so many things that happen along the way," Hite said.
"The learning curve we have put in and the group we have now assembled, especially for the planning and safety programs, is second to none. Daning's safety record is stellar and is something management and the 1500 people here are real proud of.
"I love it. It is the most challenging thing I have ever done. It is so hard it is funny - it is sadistically fun in a way."
Hite started in underground mining in 1977 while attending West Virginia University. His first job was at the No. 50 mine in Pineville, West Virginia before he got his first big job with Shell Mining Company working on their first mines in Illinois. After beginning in mining engineering, Hite quickly transferred across to operations.
Hite said the biggest difference between running a US mine and one in China is the areas of responsibility.
"Running an operation over here takes all the hours of every day. It's a seven-day-a-week around-the-clock job," Hite said.
He said the mine manager was not just running a coal mine, but a community as well.
"You're transporting people, you are making sure they are fed, housed in dorms - all the things a hotel would do - plus you're the PR person in the local area with the local officials and you have to run a coal mine. It is a lot more responsibility and [wider] ranging for a manager than running an operation in the States."
Hite also noted the manning level differences between the US and China. He said if Daning were in the US it would employ 400 people. In China it has 1500 employees.
"There is a lot of duplicity in the things you have to manually watch for by Chinese law.
There laws were written for good reason but over the years things have changed. You have all the high tech equipment, like cameras, but you still have to man things," Hite said.
Holding a reserve base of 170Mt, Daning extracts from the 4.5m high No. 3 seam which is overlain by 150-400m of overburden. It is accessed from three slopes driven from the mine yard and three ventilation shafts.
The mine operates one 225m wide face that cuts an 800mm web of coal per pass. Development is achieved through two Joy continuous miners and two roadheaders from domestic company Taiyuan Mine Machinery. Phillips shuttle coal haulers provide coal haulage during development. Daning employs a Joy 7LS shearer, DBT 5.5m shields, Longwall Associates AFC, Repower Mining International pump station, Ampcontrol electrical package and DBT belts.
Gas is a major issue at the mine and, Hite said, degassing is a whole other operation in itself. In-situ gas levels are 12-24 cubic metres per tonne, with most levels at the higher end of the scale. Daning has been classified as a potential outburst mine - so government regulations require the mine to prove the mine is degassed to a level under 10cu.m/t and a reservoir pressure under 75 kilopascals.
Daning has three Valley Longwall drills operating around the clock drilling multi-lateral drainage holes. "We have mines on either side of us so we have gone into those mines from either direction - everywhere there is a hole we try to get a drill in," Hite said.
While Daning can now get down to business and start earning back its investment, it has been a long road to get to where it is. Daning's process to production started with the establishment of the joint venture and gaining construction certification.
During the third quarter of 2005 the operation was able to move to commissioning where a small training panel was mined. A second normal-sized panel was moved to begin commissioning the equipment and 2Mt was mined.
Mining, Hite said, has been "stop and go" over the past two years while seven prerequisite inspections for environmental compliance and worker health and safety were carried out.
"Each inspection can have 60 to 70 people inspecting and it is the most intense inspection I have ever seen," Hite said.
Finally an "overall inspection" is completed and a safety licence is issued, clearing the way for Daning to gain its production licence.
The long-term mine plan is to produce on average 6Mtpa, and to raise future production to 8Mtpa.
"Daning now has to make money, and if we do the second chapter well I think we have established ourselves as a big little company here with some unique skills we have over our competitors - whether domestically or internationally," Hite said.
The ambitious AACI has not been content simply to operate one mine but is now in a joint venture to develop another. Shanxi Gaohe Energy Company (SGEC) is AACI's second investment in the Chinese coal industry. Its partner, Luan Mining Group, holds 55% of the joint venture, with Asian American owning 45% and holding key management positions at the mine.
With surface facilities sprouting up and three shafts at pit bottom, the Gaohe mine in China's Shanxi Province is rapidly moving towards starting longwall mining during the second half of 2009.
The Gaohe lease contains a JORC-compliant in-situ resource of 664Mt and management believes 320Mt of coal will be extracted from the No. 3 seam.
The mine is expected to produce 6Mtpa.
With a seam height of 7-8m, AACI plans a hybrid Longwall Top Coal Caving operation at this stage.
"Right now we are planning to sub-level cave unless coal strength sampling tells us something different," Hite said.
Gaohe's 8.2m production and service shafts, as well as ventilation shafts, are at depth with pit bottom development underway at No.3. The operation is in the process of connecting the four shafts.
Hite said the mine is also erecting a production hoist so some "very intense excavation underground is going on to get ready for that".
Most workers are technical staff and all underground construction development is being carried out by contractors.
Coal haulage will be accomplished through a series of interlocked underground conveyors feeding a bunker at the skip loading station which will be brought to the surface with a multi-rope friction hoist system with two pairs of 25t capacity skips.
Unlike its sister mine Daning, Gaohe doesn't have extreme gas levels. Hite says gas is lower than 5-15 cubic metres per tonne.
At time of writing Valley Longwall was drilling to test horizontal inseam drilling and to put down some test vertical boreholes.
Hite and his team have bold plans for Gaohe. While initial output is targeted at 6Mtpa, Hite says the operation has a potential output of 10Mt - an aspiration set for 2012 and beyond.
If the company's efforts and achievements are anything to go by, they are sure to get there.
