The great thing about it is that the same system can also be used to transport workers to / from the mine, in many cases eliminating the need for expensive fly-in-fly-out (FIFO) transport.  The system can also be used to transport supplies to / from the mine.

Another major benefit for the mining industry is that this system can eliminate the need for expensive port loading infrastructure because the transport modules can load directly into ships.

This system is also an answer to some of the criticism received from the environmental movement.  The system can be installed with minimal earthworks and can cross sensitive environmental areas with minimal impact.  The system is also extremely fuel efficient.

The cost to install the system is about half the cost of installing a conventional railway line. If you combine the savings from line construction and eliminating the port requirements, the savings amount to hundreds of millions of dollars.  In some cases, this can mean the difference between proceeding or not proceeding with a new mine development.

Read more about the application to mining transport.

The same company has also developed a system for high speed passenger transport.

Imagine being able to travel from Sydney to Melbourne in less than 2 hours! Imagine doing it without all the hassles of airport check-ins and going through security.

Their inner city passenger transport solution will enable people to travel across the city at speeds of up to 110kph.  This type of system can be installed in just about any city because it is installed ABOVE the city.

For more information, go to the Alternate Transport website. The website has lots of images and even a few videos to watch.

Mike Sutherlin, Joy Global’s President and Chief Executive Officer said that the purchase of Continental would expand the range of products and services they can deliver to their customers, and was consistent with their strategy of adding related and highly synergised product lines. He added that Continental’s conveyor systems fit closely with their surface and underground and businesses, allowing Joy to leverage their strong global presence in both segments.

From other comments made, it appears that Joy is looking to further integrate their face mining systems with outbye conveyor systems in order to further improve system reliability.  If this truly happens, it would surely be welcomed by all longwall and development superintendents.

Let’s see how all this progresses.

Calvin Close
Managing Director
Australian Mining Reference

Further links:

Australian Mining Business Directory
 - Underground Coal Mining Equipment
 - Open Cut Mining Equipment
 - Hard Rock Mining Equipment
 - Conveyor Equipment

In fact, there are countless Mining Safety Alerts about scald injuries from people removing radiator caps on mine sites in Australia.

A small Australian company, MineSafe, has now come up with a solution to this problem by designing a radiator cap that is impossible to remove without first releasing the pressure from the radiator using the pressure release lever.  Their main radiator cap has been specifically designed for use underground in mines.  The cap has no prohibited alloy components and is built robustly for the tough environmental conditions experienced at mine sites.

We all know that hard barriers are a much better control for preventing accidents than procedures.  These MineSafe Radiator Caps are a hard barrier.

These caps are inexpensive so there is no reason that they shouldn’t be fitted to every vehicle on a mine site.  In fact, they have models to suit most industrial radiators and also smaller versions to fit standard passenger vehicles.

For more information, you can go to the MineSafe Radiator Caps website, or call Jean or Brett on +612 6372-2579.

Previously, Centennial Coal completed the sale of its Anvil Hill development to XStrata for A$454 million.

Centennial is using the proceeds of both sales to reduce debt and for capital management initiatives.

The Greens were challenging the mine, stating that the mine will increase greenhouse gas emissions by 5.3 per cent a year and use 6.9 megalitres of water each day.

However, NSW Planning Minister Frank Sartor said “It’s just not tenable to refuse a coal mine because people might burn coal in China or somewhere else, unless we refused all coal mining”.

I agree with Mr Sartor.  We either mine coal, or we don’t.  There is no point singling out one mine for greenhouse gases just to stop the approval.

As Mr Sartor said when approving the Anvil Hill Mine earlier this year, “a black ban on new coalmine applications in New South Wales alone would devastate the economy, but, worse still, would achieve zero net benefit to climate change because our coal would be substituted with coal from elsewhere”. (Hansard 7 June 2007)

Last time it was held in 2003, over 10,000 unique visitors attended the event. For those people that cannot make it to AIMEX, I will post some pictures on The Mining Blog.

AIMEX is an exhibition of BIG stuff and little stuff.  On the left is a picture of a BIG Atlas Copco Drill - I couldn’t even get the whole mast in the picture.

The mood at this year’s AIMEX is quite different to the one held in 2003.  This year, the general talk by many suppliers is that they wish that they had more resources to supply more of their product and / or service.  The mining boom is evident in the discussions going on in the halls.

At the exhibition, Bucyrus announced that the ‘DBT’ name would be replaced by the Bucyrus name effective 1 January 2008.  On the right is one of the Bucyrus / DBT longwall shields bound for China.

It was also interesting to see the number of new players in the underground mining scene.  One that surprised quite a few people was Valley Longwall International.  This group certainly has come a long way from its humble beginnings, and now incorporates the original Valley Longwall, Specialised Mining Equipment (SME), Specialized Mining Vehicles (SMV), Pit Top Conveyors, Tyton Conveyors, Uni-Rod, Juganaut and NBM.

To coincide with AIMEX, we are offering $50 off our Mining Marketing Consulations.  At $447, you will get some great insights into marketing to the Australian mining industry.  You can ask us just about any question relating to marketing to the Australian Mining Industry and you will get quick, professional advice.

Like our mottos says, we “open the doors to the Australian Mining Industry”.  What are you waiting for?

Get your Mining Marketing Consulation now

Anyway, back to the photos.  On the left is a picture of Joy’s new 2-metre support that was at the entrance to AIMEX.  Yes it is a monster.

Another aspect that I noticed (and quite a few others also mentioned to me) was that there was a noticeable absense of the really BIG open-cut mining equipment.

At AIMEX 2003, there was at least one really big truck.  There was also lots of other equipment being displayed in 2003.  I remember that MMD had a few sizers there.

The general consensus from the people that I spoke to was that companies were flat out keeping up with their orders, so they had no spare equipment to show off.

OK, lastly, I thought I would show a picture of a big bucket - with me in it! Pretty big teeth, huh? On the bucket, that is!

I was told that this bucket weighed about 40 tonnes.

Anyway, that will have to be it for now.  If you have any photos from AIMEX that you would like to share, feel free to send them to us.

In the mean time, don’t forget to get your Mining Marketing Consulation while we have the special offer running.

Have you been following the unfolding story of the rescue attempts at the Crandall Canyon mine? I want to share some links to video clips, pictures and other illustrations to help you understand the situation at Crandall Canyon. I will continue to update this as the story unfolds.

Current News:

Officials at the Crandall Canyon mine have announced that the search for the missing miners is now finished after drilling a seventh hole and still finding no sign of life underground.  This hole was drilled into the miners’ “kitchen”, but officials had expressed disappointment that the hole only revealed 7 feet of rubble.  They had drilled this hole because miners are trained to seek refuge here during a collapse.

 They had also sent a robotic camera down one of the holes, but only found mud.  In fact, they had to abandon the robot down the mine because it got stuck in the mud.

Here is a video taken down one of the boreholes that was drilled into the mine following the initial roof collapse:

(video courtesy of KUTV-2)

I have worked in Australian coal mines for almost 20 years, and have also gone underground at a few mines in the USA. I was surprised at the differencese in safety standards between the 2 countries. One example is the use of diesel equipment underground. In some US states, they cannot use diesel equipment underground, whereas in Australia, they have been using diesels for many years. On the other hand, I was amazed at the use of trolley-wire trains (complete with all the sparks, etc) underground in the USA. So, what about Emergency Response Plans (ERP)? In particular, here is a link to the Crandall Canyon ERP submitted to the Coal Mine Safety and Health District (CMSH) District 9:

Crandall Canyon Emergency Response Plan

This plan also contains a mine layout plan at the end of the document.  As you can see, the plan was approved by CMSH on 13 June 2007. The ERP’s are a requirement of the new Miner Act 2006. As you can see from the Plan, it is pretty comprehensive in terms of providing for sufficient Self Contained Self Rescuers (SCSR), directional life-lines, post-accident breathable air (PABA), trapped-miner maintenance materials, etc.

So what does the Crandall Canyon mine look like, and what are the conditions experienced at the mine? Well, for a start, this is a deep mine - in some places over 2,000 feet (600 metres) deep.

What does it look like on the surface?  Here is a short video showing the terrain overlaying the mine:

Rio Tinto’s Coal & Allied Division announced a 20 percent cut in coal production due to bottlenecks in rail infrastructure and Newcastle Port. As a result, 250 miners will lose their jobs this month.

Other mining companies in the NSW Hunter Valley have also had to scale back production due to these same issues. The Austar mine last month announced that it would cut 79 jobs because it could not get enough port access.

Mining companies have tried to reduce the impact of the port problems by re-introducing a quota system for port access.

A consortium led by BHP Billiton has recently been granted approval to build a third coal export terminal. However, this will not open until 2009.

There has been a lot of people jumping up and down about this issue with the port infrastructure.

However, as an engineer, I understand that infrastructure and equipment has operating capacities. When designing systems to handle coal throughput, you only design the system for the required throughput.

Why?

We know that extra capacity or throughput costs more money. Therefore, predictions are made about requirements and the system is designed to meet those requirements. Any bigger, and it costs more - sometimes a lot more.

Recently, I was in charge of a coal handling system upgrade, and we were faced with the same issue. Many people wanted to know why we didn’t install larger conveyors, etc.

Another issue lies in accuracy of predicting coal output requirements. Some people were saying that the mining boom was going to continue; others were predicting an end.

Lastly, there is the issue of handling peaks in capacity. Sydney’s hospitality industry faced this issue during the 2000 Olympics. What happened after the Games finished? There were a whole lot of vacant motel rooms.

If you have sufficient capacity to handle any possible requirement, most of the time there will be idle capacity. Again, this costs money.

Sometimes, it is hard to make decisions about required capacity, and we are seeing the results of reaching capacity limits with our infrastructure due to the mining boom - just like we did with motels during the Sydney Olympics.

Calvin Close
Managing Director
Australia’s Mining Reference

Robe River Mining Company, a subsidiary of Rio Tinto, had proposed the $12.5 billion Mesa A project as an expansion of the Pilbarra iron ore project.

The Troglobite is a small invertebrate that is only 4mm long, has no eyes or pigment and lives 5 - 30 metres below ground. It cannot survive above ground.

During its investigation of the Mesa A Project, Robe River discovered 11 of these troglobotic fauna, and committed to setting aside a mining exclusion zone to protect them. However, the EPA said that five of the species live in the area to be mined, and do not occur in the mining exclusion zone.

This news has sent shock waves through the mining industry, with many people raising questions about balancing environmental concerns with the need to foster WA’s biggest ever mining boom.

As expected, Rio Tinto has said that it would appeal the decision.

This is not the first time that the EPA has rejected proposals for mining projects. Recently, they knocked back the Gorgon gas plant on Barrow Island due to the impact on the island’s rare turtle. The WA Environment Minister at the time, Mark McGowan, approved the project with a list of environmental conditions imposed on it.

There are other similar cases.

I do not want to write a long story about this news, because there are many news items that have been published about this already.

Instead, I want to open this up to people to comment about it.

What is your opinion about saving rare species of fauna at the expense of bringing great financial benefits to the WA economy?

Do you think the decision is justified?

Post a comment and let the minng industry know what you think…

Calvin Close
Managing Director
Australia’s Mining Reference

In the December 2006 quarter alone, mineral exploration (excluding petroleum) rose yet another $36 million (9.5%) to $424 million.

This represents an increase of over 40% on the December 2005 quarter. The biggest gains were made in Western Australia (up $21.7 million) and Victoria (up $3.8 million).

Another major indicator is the number of metres drilled. In the December 2006 quarter, a total of 2,183,000 metres were drilled (up 7%).

All the figures above are seasonally adjusted.

Gold and Coal exploration expenditure had the largest increases, with both recording increases of almost 20%. In fact, not one mineral category experienced a decrease in exploration expenditure in the December 2006 quarter

We know that exploration expenditure precedes the actual mining. Although exploration alone doesn’t ensure that the actual mining takes place, it is one of the best predictors of future mining levels.

My prediction is for some pretty strong growth for some time yet.

Calvin Close
Managing Director
miningreference.com - Australia’s Premier Mining Reference

ps Wanting to market to the Australian Mining Industry? Download the free “Mining Marketing Manifesto” from the Mining Marketing website. It will change the way you do your marketing.