April

April, in some respects, was a more positive month as two new longwalls made headway towards ramp-up.

Carborough Downs, one of the stories of the year and certainly one of the most popular with ILN readers, completed compatibility testing and lead OEM Inbye Mining Services told the Australian industry it was ready to show off the first-of-its-kind longwall with an open day.

Carborough Downs wasn’t the only new longwall hitting its straps. The giant Moranbah North longwall had completed compatability trials and was in the process of installing and testing the LASC components.

Not all suppliers were suffering under the GFC, evidenced by Industrea which announced one of its biggest coups of the year. The manufacturer won a $A20 million contract from China Shenhua Energy Company to supply six 80-tonne longwall roof support carriers and one 130t shearer carrier to one of the world’s biggest longwalls. The Shandong mine will mine 7.3 metres of its seam in a single pass to produce 30 million tonnes per annum.

Contracting companies continued to suffer under the GFC, with HMP Constructions entering voluntary administration after contract cutbacks by BHP Billiton Mitsubishi Alliance at the Goonyella Riverside and Norwich Park surface coal operations.

With the US coal market still hurting, major producer Arch Coal announced further spending reductions, to $US195-215 million for capital programs and $140-160 million for land and reserve additions for 2009.

In better news, Jim Walter Resources’ No. 4 underground mine in Alabama announced it would be home of the first active coal mine mitigation system in the United States. The Vamox coal mine methane abatement system has since become operational, capturing 30,000 cubic feet per minute of mine ventilation air.

April was sadly marked by the death of 34-year-old Dan Hill from head injuries sustained while performing maintenance work at Vale’s Glennies Creek longwall mine near Singleton, in New South Wales’s Hunter Valley.

May

In May we detailed Peter Lynch’s plans for his Waratah Coal project in the Galilee Basin, including the recent takeover by Clive Palmer’s Mineralogy and news the project had attracted massive investment from China Metallurgical Group Corporation. MCC agreed it would arrange debt funding of up to 60% of the total capital cost, estimated at $US3.1 billion, from Chinese banks.

MCC went a long way to delivering on this promise in November, delivering a letter of support from a major Chinese bank.

At NSW mine Appin, the crew began mining with a new Joy shearer, armoured face conveyor and pans. The $A22.8 million worth of new equipment was purchased to inject efficiency into the mine’s longwall change-outs.

Marking the end of an era, Centennial Coal’s Newstan mine entered care and maintenance after finishing its last longwall block. While 25 years of mining has ended, it is not the end of the story for Newstan.

Centennial Coal said recently it was progressing work at the adjoining Newstan Lochiel project with a prefeasibility study. The study is expected to be completed around the end of the June 2010 quarter.

In the US, news broke that one of America’s largest coal producers would be created by a merger between master limited partnership Alpha Natural Resources and Foundation Coal. The new entity would control 59 coal mines, 14 preparation plants and 2008 pro forma revenues of $US4.2 billion.

June

Like the previous few months, June was marked by a mixture of good and bad news.

On the bad news front, Arch Coal announced it would lay off 81 workers at the West Elk operation. This news was balanced out with Consol Energy’s announcement it would reopen its Buchanan longwall on the other side of the country.

In Australia, China Shenhua Energy signed a contract with Every Day Mine Services, signalling the start of drilling at the Watermark exploration project near Gunnedah, New South Wales.

While the exploration has faced much opposition from Liverpool Plains farmers, work is continuing in the area.

Peabody gained approval to extend the life of its Metropolitan mine by another 25 years. The company opted to sterilise 8.6Mt of coal onsite by implementing a barrier to protect waterways, cliffs and heritage sites.

While one mine’s life was being extended, Xstrata announced that the United longwall would close in March 2010 with the mining out of the last of its reserves.