1. ACARP Roadway Development - Operators Workshop March 2008
Roadway Development at Crinum Mine

2. Introduction
Development at Crinum Mine has undergone massive changes over the last 2 years.
Changed from panel development off mains to punch longwall system.
After 13 years of utilising Joy continuous miners introduced an ABM 25S continuous miner.

3. Crinum Mine - Technical Data
Roof strength UCS 6 to 22 MPa
Floor strength UCS 6 MPa
Roadway width 4.8m
Pillar dimensions 30m wide x 130m centres
Coal Seam height 3.2m
Cutting height 3.2 to 3.3m leaving 0.3m coal on the floor
Stone cut 0.2 to 0.3m

4. Crinum Mine - Equipment
Joy 12CM32 continuous miner
Joy 15SC32 shuttle car
Joy Mobile boot end
Track mounted auxiliary fan (18m3) with 720mm diameter ventilation tubes
Panel belts 1400 belt and structure with 2 x 375kw drivehead and 300m loop take up
Coal cleared via mains belts
Pipes installed utilising pipe pods on MPV’s
Stone dusting utilised stone dust pods on MPV’s

5. Crinum Mine - Development Rates
Averaged 140m per week in MG15

6. Crinum Mine - Development Rates
Averaged 3.0m per op hr for 46.6 op hrs per week in MG15

7. Decision Behind Crinum East
Moved from Crinum to Crinum East in October 2006.
Change from mains drivage to punch longwall system.
Increase in productivity due to U/G panel belts only.
No outbye mains areas to maintain.
Trench conveyors simpler because they do not require gas monitoring and surface conveyors easier to maintain.
Quicker travel time from surface to U/G – have Toyotas that can go from surface to crib room.

8. Decision Behind Crinum East
Less infrastructure to maintain – no complex gas monitoring system, u/g dewatering system, road maintenance.
Longwall moves easier as there is no mains to deal with.
Ventilation of panels simple.

9. Crinum East Mine Plan

10. Crinum East Trench

11. Crinum East - Changes to Development
Panel belts changed to 1050 belt with 1400 structure and 2 x 75 kw combi drives with a 7m loop take up.
Coal stockpiled outside portal and trucked out of trench to surface stockpile.
No MPV’s used at Crinum East as part of the BHPB FRCP’s.
Pipe trailer and Eimco utilised for installing pipes.
Quick duster utilised for stone dusting.
Seam height 3.1m at Crinum East requiring additional stone to be cut

12. Crinum East - Production with Joy CM
Initially commenced development at Crinum East with Joy continuous miner.
Small decrease in weekly development metres due to reduced operating hours.
Mineworkers unfamiliar with pipe trailer.
Lost time with stone dusting due to issues with the quick duster.

13. Crinum East - Production with Joy CM
Averaged 135m per week in MG17 with Joy miner.

14. Crinum East - Production with Joy CM
Averaged 3.2m per op hr for 42.4 op hrs per week in MG17 with Joy miner.

15. Introduction of the ABM
The ABM continuous miner was introduced to Crinum due to a number of key factors:
Continuous bolting and cutting cycle.
The canopy suits poor ground conditions.
The ABM was justified on a 15% productivity increase over the Joy miners. Expectation was 183m per week.
Improved ergonomics at the bolter controls and elevating working platform for mineworkers and improved ergonomics for tradespersons.
Roof mesh holder on the tail.

16. Introduction of the ABM
Monorail and flexiduct ventilation system to improve cutting rate and reduce manual handling of ventilation tubes.

17. Introduction of the ABM
The introduction of the ABM introduced significant changes to the mining cycle:
The monorail and flexiduct ventilation system needed to be developed to suit Crinum.
Supplies for the ABM required smaller cassettes and rackers. The cassettes for the Joy held 35m on 6 bolt pattern where the ABM cassettes could only hold 25m.
Joy CM requires 5 person crews, ABM requires 6 person crews for continuous bolting and cutting.
The majority of mineworkers in the department had not previously worked with ABM’s before.

18. Crinum East - Production with ABM CM
Drastic reduction in cutting time and rate leading to overall reduced metres per week.
Identified a number of issues within the ABM system.
The positive indicator is that cutting rate was improving toward the end of the panel.
We know the system can produce metres with one shift achieving 38m.

19. Crinum East - Production with ABM CM
Averaged 84m per week in MG17 with ABM miner.

20. Crinum East - Production with ABM CM
Averaged 2.45m per op hr for 35 op hrs per week in MG17 with ABM miner.

21. Crinum East - Issues with the ABM System
There were a number of issues associated with the ABM and the system supporting it:
Issues with the ABM.
Issues with shuttle car haulage.
Issues with the flexiduct ventilation system.
Issues associated with the conveyor system.

22. Crinum East - Issues with the ABM System
Issues associated with the ABM:
Cutting height had to be increased from 3.3m to 3.5m to allow flitting underneath the flexiduct in A heading.
The cutting cycle was shuttle car constrained – gone from 2 cars per metre to 2.5 cars per metre. The tail on the ABM was shorter than the Joy miner.
Large amount of road works required prior to flitting the miner.
Issues with the pick lacing causing an arched profile.
Excessive water usage creating a face water issue.
Number of electrical faults.

23. Crinum East - Issues with the ABM System
Issues associated with the shuttle car:
Shuttle car constrained - stubs had increased from 20m to 30m in A heading and 40m in B heading to accommodate monorail and flexiduct.
Slow loading onto belts due to 1050 belt and jiffy drives.

24. Crinum East - Issues with the ABM System
Issues associated with the monorail and flexiduct:
Flexiduct smaller in diameter by 20mm with higher resistance resulting in reduced quantity at face.
Build up of fines in the throat.
Flexiduct twists and collapses reducing ventilation to face near fan.
Has added an additional shift to the panel extensions.

25. Crinum East - Issues with the ABM System
Issues associated with the conveyors / boot end:
Utilising 1050 belt on boot end and structure designed for 1400 belt.
Belt speed for 1050 belt is 2 m/s vs 4 m/s for 1400 belt requiring slow loading.
Jiffy drives were too far apart causing belt slip and tensioning issues.
Combi drive had only a 7m loop take up requiring a belt clipping station.
Panel extensions taking 5 shifts on average.

26. Crinum East - Improving the ABM System
We have identified a number of problems that need to be resolved if we are going to be successful with the ABM mining system.
We have commenced a Productivity Optimisation Process with Mining Consultancy Services.

27. Crinum East - Improving the ABM System
Reduced to height of the ABM to allow us to flit under the monorail and flexiduct in a 3.3m heading.
Extended the tail to enable 2 cars per metre.
Improved the panel standards (horizon control) to reduce the amount of road works required prior to flitting.
Modified the pick lacing so we cut a square profile.
Made changes to the water circuit to reduce water usage.
Made a lot of changes to the electrical system.

28. Crinum East - Improving the ABM System
Improving shuttle car efficiency:
Improved horizon control to reduce tramming time.
Currently evaluating the use of a Stamler feeder breaker to allow unloading of the car on fast tram.

29. Crinum East - Improving the ABM System
Improving the monorail and flexiduct system:
Trial of a monorail mule to assist packing up of monorail.
Reducing the height of the trolly brackets to allow a 3.3m heading height.
Tighten flexiduct rings to prevent twisting.
Adding additional trolleys and rings near vent fan.
Purpose built T pieces for the flexiduct.
A new inline removable monorail section instead of the points currently utilised.

30. Crinum East - Improving the ABM System
Improving the conveyor system:
Add additional jiffy drives to improve belt reliability and resolve belt slip issues.
Looking at improving the belt clipping station.
Reducing panel extension times.

31. Crinum East - Improving the ABM System
MCS POP project:
Mining Consultancy Services have a large amount of experience and expertise in business analysis, mine design, mining operations and people, productivity optimisation and equipment design and selection.
Currently responsible for the performance and monitoring of 60 continuous miner units world wide.
Currently 2 months into the 9 month POP project.

32. Crinum East - Improving the ABM System
The 9 month process can be broken up into 2 phases and 4 modules:
Phase 1: Evaluate to current system and mining process to establish production objectives and functional KPI’s (9 weeks).
Phase 2: Implementation of the POP process, implementation of initiatives and coaching and mentoring role (25 weeks).
Crucial to the success of the project is onboard monitoring on the miner to allow monitoring and evaluation of initiatives.

33. Crinum East - Improving the ABM System
The POP process.
WHAT HAS BEEN
LEARNT ABOUT
THE PRODUCTION
PROCESS?
FORMULATE
ACTION
PLAN
IMPLEMENT
MONITOR
* TRENDS
* AVERAGES
* RE-OCCURRENCE
POP

34. Crinum East - Improving the ABM System
Analysis of downtime for each miner.

35. Crinum East - Improving the ABM System
After 2 months of the POP project, a number of areas of opportunity have been identified:
Reducing process delays.
Optimising cycle times.
Changing mining dimensions.
Modify 6/2 bolting pattern to a 4/4 bolting pattern.
Evaluate use of Stamler feeder breaker on front of boot end.
Reducing panel extension times.
Planning process.
Panel standards.

36. Crinum East - Improving the ABM System
Presentations have been made to every crew detailing the development data over the last year.
A workshop involving the development workforce has been held to provide involvement and ownership of the process.
Currently designing Crinum specific reports that will be automatically generated from the onboard monitoring. This will use traffic light colour system and benchmark their performance against specific targets.

37. Crinum East - Targets for the next Year
We have completed MG17 and due to commence MG19.
Our Goals over the following year are:
Develop MG19 with high panel standards.
Achieve a minimum of 10% production improvement through the POP project with MCS.
Consistently achieve 4.0m per op hour.
Achieve a minimum of 46 op hours per week and work towards achieving 67 op hours per week.