The Ulan mine in the New South Wales Hunter Valley will be Australia's first longwall operation to test-run the new Petitto tracked longwall carrier. Local agent Australian Mining Services brought the equipment into Australia in December last year.
The machine will be hired out to mining companies and contractors to transport longwall powered supports to the next longwall block during panel moves.
The company said the carrier was the only such machine rated at a carrying capacity of 40 tonnes. The machine is 3.6m in width by 8m in length and independent drives enable the machine to rotate around corners.
Australian Mining Services has targeted Queensland longwall operations with soft floor conditions as a growing market for the carrier. The company said the Petitto does not tear up the floor in the same way as rubber-tyred equivalents because the machine was propelled on self-laying crawler track.
"Fully laded with a 40t load a minimum of 24.8 PSI ground pressure is applied. The rubber wheeled machines currently used to carry out the same duty exceed this by approximately four times," the company said. The carrier will be transported to mines by truck.
