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The 10 Hour Panel Advance. Jim Richardson - September 2006. Mine Location – National. Mine Location – Regional. HISTORY. Around 1973 a family owned mine at Nymboida in Northern NSW closed without being able to pay the workforce their entitlements.
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The 10 Hour Panel Advance Jim Richardson - September 2006 Accompanied Visitor Induction
HISTORY • Around 1973 a family owned mine at Nymboida in Northern NSW closed without being able to pay the workforce their entitlements. • As there was still some recoverable coal the Miners’ Federation was granted permission to operate the mine in an effort to earn profits that would pay the outstanding entitlements. • The mine operated until 1975 when reserves exhausted, the workers were paid up all that was owing to them. • The Miners Federation was granted the lease by the Wran Labour Government as a substitute for the previous lease.
HISTORY (Continued) • The more established mining companies had shown little interest in this lease due to the number of faults identified in an exploration drilling program. • Over time what may have originally been thought to have been faults of up to 5m displacement were discovered to be large swarms of small faults with 50 – 150mm displacement that rarely created roof control issues.
HISTORY (Continued) • United Collieries Pty Limited (United) was formed in 1980. • Lack of funds saw the union enter in to a joint venture arrangement with a number of companies. • Underground mining commenced in 1992.
HISTORY (Continued) • The ownership mix changed many times over the first seven years of the Mines operation. • The mine operated as a place change operation with reasonable success – 1999 produced more than 2 million tonnes from 3 continuous miners operating 5 day week! • This was the most tonnes mined in Australia by ay a non – longwall mine for that year.
HISTORY (Continued) • Glencore bought out White Industries in 2000 and the decision was made to invest in the refurbishment of the Teralba Colliery longwall equipment and introduce longwall mining to United. • With this decision to become a longwall mine came a new challenges in the form of gate road development.
TODAY • The first tailgate was driven using a hired 12 CM 11. • The first maingate was driven using one of the original place change machines and a Fletcher multi - boom roof bolter with 15m plunges being the norm.
TODAY • Today United is a Joint Venture company owned by Abelshore, a wholly owned subsidiary of Xstrata Coal NSW (95% holdings) and the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) (5%holdings) • United Colliery is located at Warkworth in the Hunter Valley 20km west of Singleton (approx 90km from Newcastle.) • United currently extracts coal using longwall mining methods in the Woodland’s Hill Seam from beneath Wambo’s Mines’ open cut mining area. • The mine produces 3.75m tonnes of semi – soft coking coal for the export market. • This is achieved with one “twin miner” development panel developing approx 13km of roadways per year.
The Development Panel Process • 102m x 46.2m pillars. • Roadway 2.9m x 5.4m produces 23 tonnes to the metre advance. • 2 x Joy 12 CM 12 D Frame Continuous Miners (In service since 1997 as place machines and conversion to bolter miners in 2001)Fitted with Joy HFX 3100 rigs on cross slide. • Joy HFX 1900 Rib bolting rigs fitted on overhauls in 2006 • Joy 15 SC shuttle cars • 2 x Vale 18 cubic metre aux fans. • 610mm x 2000mm Lightweight vent tubes
This Presentation ? • Typically the panel advance takes 10.5 hrs from last coal to first coal in the belt road with the travel road typically 12.5 to 13 hrs. • It has NOT always been this way!! • To understand how United’s result compares to the results at other operations we need to compare apples with apples!
Comparisons • Mine operating philosophies. • Conveyor belt structure type. • Preparation time eg. Road cleaning, Pipes,cables • Triggers (Past and Present) • Manning levels.
Comparisons (Continued) • Culture of participation in continuous improvement and acceptance of change. • Mine philosophy of operating Monday to Friday (only) meant that Conveyor Belt Maintenance required belts to be stopped for one shift mid week every week. • The development panel used this window as the opportunity to not only service machinery but to also do required preparation work for the belt move. • The gate road conveyor belts are installed using the longwall jib, transfer and Loop Take Up.
Comparisons (Continued) • This allows for approx 250m of “live” storage in the LTU and a roll of belt is installed ready for the next belt extension. • At this point in the cycle, pairs belt suspension bolts are installed at 3m centres at marks provided by the survey department. • The “Bat Bag” type isolation barrier is also installed above the conveyor belt within the face zone at this point.
The Conveyor Equipment • Continental Conveyors – 1200mm Gateroad structure • Belt stand weight - 40kg • Stringer weight - 23kg • Return roller - 27kg • 3 piece trough roller set - 30kg • 1200 mm boot end with Grizzly grid – weight approx 4.5 tonnes • Series 10 000 (1750 kN)1200mmConveyor belt • 240m live capacity LTU • NO BREAKER FEEDER!!!
The Preparation • All road cleaning is done as part of mining process. The delays incurred are deemed to be Process Operational Delays • The Travel road cleaned when the face is advanced to 132m. The miner is flitted back to the outbye cut thru and a clean up run done before pipes are extended. • The Belt road is cleaned by dozing into the overdrive when the cut through is being holed. • After holing cut thru, the belt road CM is flitted back into the belt road and stopped to allow the c/t to be cleaned into the belt road overdrive. The stowage is loaded out through the car.
The Trigger (Past) • In the beginning it was assumed that the best result would be achieved by commencing the panel advance as soon as the pillar was completed. ie. At a nominated chainage at any time day or night. • It was considered that to be fair all shift should share in the Panel Advance. • A common outcome was for a crew that had been averaging 15 – 20m/shift and needing to cut 10m to hit the trigger to begin the advance would experience all sorts of “bad luck” and only make the trigger at the end of their shift. • Difficult to man to maximum when the belt move works best with more people than normally in the panel. • Limited to accurately predict when advance would start and therefore resources such as LHD’s
What Changed? • After a number of “workshops” involving crew members from all shifts it was becoming apparent that the Dayshift Crew Supervisor and his crew were more motivated towards continuing to improve on the time taken to complete the Panel Advance. • Improvement suggestions from the crew were trialled. These changes included using more people and more machinery so as to tackle more tasks in parallel. This included the transformer move as part of the advance every 2nd pillar without any increase in the time taken for the advance.
Management attitude! • Instead of trying to get a good result with whatever number of people happened to be available – the attitude became; “We are doing a panel advance – how do find enough people to make it happen” • Contractors, overtime or non – essential work around the mine was rescheduled to free up labour and take the excuses away. • The decision was made to have Dayshift do the belt move every time. A clear case of “whipping the willing horse”.
Manning Levels • 10 x Mineworkers • 1 x fitter • 1 x electrician • 1 x deputy • 2 x A/S o/timers for 4 hrs • Every 2nd Pillar – Include Tranny Move generally ½ shift • 2 x Electricians • 2 x Mineworkers
The RIGHT start bringsabout the RIGHT results. • The intent is on every Panel Advance that the Dayshift crew are able to hit the ground running – breaking up into their teams without having to be involved in parking up machines, cleaning roadways and servicing LHD’s etc. • This set up work is referred to as the Panel Advance “Park Up”
THE “PARK UP” • To achieve this start the Nightshift crew MUST stop production with enough time remaining in the shift to ensure that the boot end is cleaned, both continuous miners are parked in the overdrives with the CM cable recovered and the shuttle cars behind the miners. • Typically production ceases at 5 AM. • Two serviced LHD’s and the MPV are in the panel ready to go. • When the park up is right the Dayshift crew can isolate the conveyor at the drivehead on their way into the panel.
Equipment used • MPV - to move • 3 x belt structure pods • 2 x Aux fans • 1 x Stopping pod • Eimco 913 for cable work • Wagner or Jugonaut to lift and advance the boot end while the structure is built. • Flat deck trailer used to recover the vent tubes from the belt road and store in the rib under the travel road vent line. • An additional LHD is required every second move when tranny is moved
Key elements to successfulresults. • United is fortunate enough to have a good work force with a “CAN DO” attitude!!! • Leadership at all levels. • Management has demonstrated by committing a great deal of resources to the Panel Advance process that they are serious about supporting the crews to achieve the best possible outcome. • The panel supervisor “owns” the overall result. • The recognition of and the communication with the “informal” leaders within the crew who in turn “own” their part of the process. • Total understanding of the tasks by all members of the crew.
Key elements to successfulresults. (Continued) • Specialisation within the crew towards specific tasks. • Expectation – Everyone expects that the normal result will be achieved. • Confidence – The crew knows that they have the ability to regroup and overcome problems that may set them back eg. Machine breakdowns.
Key elements to successfulresults. (Continued) • Lightweight structure is easy to handle. The building of the structure is not seen as an onerous task. • Each bay is put together as LHD reverses back with boot end in bucket. • LTU winch set to pay out as LHD reverses inbye – No hanging rolls of belt – No pulling with ropes – No rejoining belt. • Pegs on stringers and slots on legs – No bolts or pins – Structue is knocked together with a 4lb hammer. • No packing – suspended on chains, installed to a survey line painted on the rib, levelled as installed.
Conclusions. • There are no secrets. • There is no Hi tech equipment used. • The time taken is predictable because it is essentially done the same way each time. • Cable hook positions are repeated every cycle with the recovery and installation of the cables in mind.
Conclusions. • The consistent results achieved on the Panel Advance at United are fundamental to the overall results for the development process. • The available cutting hours are increased and the work is carried out safely and to a high standard. • Find what works best overall for your mine and continue to work with the crews as to identify ways to improve on the result. • Repeat what works! • Change what doesn’t!
