Held up as a saviour for struggling development rates, continuous haulage is the buzzword of the year. While it has been all good and well to increase longwall capacity, mines have found themselves in a position where development crews simply cannot keep ahead.
Unequivocally linked, slow development rates mean low longwall production. While many technologies and practices are beginning to be explored to lift advancement rates, continuous haulage is one of the stars.
Already Caledon’s Cook Colliery is carving its way as an industry leader in this area with its Magatar system. Now beginning to hit its straps, the mine is showing that the once maligned Cook Colliery is capable of producing decent tonnages with a bord and pillar operation and continuous haulage system.
Contractor Bounty Industries has commissioned a Stamler continuous haulage system underground at the Aquila coal mine in Queensland.
The continuous haulage system consists of three short bridge units with fixed conveyors that load coal directly from the coal miner at the face to the panel trunk conveyor.
“With improved operating and safety systems integrated into the machine, the system is recognised as one of the most efficient special-purpose methods for moving materials from the mine face,” the company said in August.
In late November Bounty declared its system a success: “On a regular basis on a full development phase the haulage system is now providing throughput which is 20 per cent higher than that achieved with shuttle cars in comparable circumstances.”
In September Centennial Coal announced it had ordered a Joy flexible conveyor train (4FCT) for its Clarence bord and pillar mine and is expected to be delivered around the end of 2009.
Centennial managing director Bob Cameron said upon signing the deal with Joy that he anticipated continuous haulage would further lift Clarence as Australia’s highest productivity continuous miner operation.
Joy haulage global product manager Terry Thomas said the deal was an exciting market opportunity for Australia which would open up the Asia Pacific market for continuous haulage.
“Introducing continuous haulage is like going back to when the longwall was first introduced. The 4FCT integrates the development side of the mine and makes it more like the longwall, where everything moves together like a system,” Thomas said.
In October last year India NRE Minerals mentioned to Australian Longwall it was also assessing continuous haulage to double or triple advance rates at its NRE No. 1 colliery.
Also rumoured to be assessing continuous haulage as an option are Xstrata and Vale.
With so many mines taking the plunge, it seems industry confidence abounds that continuous haulage is the right path to take.
Australian Roadway Development Improvement project leader Gary Gibson says continuous haulage systems are one of the elements of improved development rates.
However, he says more immediate and significant gains can be achieved at most mines through improved application of process management and process improvement disciplines, the pursuit (and maintenance) of fit-for-purpose equipment designed to optimise existing roadway development processes, and the introduction of self-drilling bolts.
For the future he envisages best-practice mines will successfully introduce and embrace new generation continuous haulage systems and establish industry benchmark performance levels. “These companies will also be able to integrate these systems with new technologies developed as part of the proposed CM2010 project to leverage further gains,” he said.
See tomorrow’s International Longwall News for details of what continuous haulage options OEMs are offering.
Published in September 2008 Australian Longwall MagazineNote: Story updated since publishing in September
