The company has contracted the Walter-Continental Conveyor Joint Venture — a union between Australia’s Walter Construction Group and US-based Continental Conveyor and Equipment — to design, manufacture, install and commission a 3000-tonnes-per-hour drift and stacker conveyor system and associated infrastructure.
The system will replace the existing configuration of four separate conveyors, create greater stockpiling capacity, and allow Namoi Hunter to transport higher volumes of coal out of the mine.
Upgrade project plant and works include:
- An underground trunk belt jib to the drift belt transfer station.
- An underground drift belt gravity take-up system.
- A dewatering tripper station.
- Extensive underground roadheader excavation works to create an appropriate conveyor profile, and remove current drainage problems.
- A surface drive station featuring three 1MW, 11kV slip-ring drive units.
- A surface drift belt conveyor to the stacker belt transfer station.
- A stacker conveyor gantry/jib structure discharging onto a coal stockpile area.
The new drift conveyor is a 1400mm-belt system with ST3450 steel cord belt.
A spokesperson for the WCCJV said the two companies had joined forces to offer the market a “total package of services in the materials handling industry”. The Glennies Creek drift conveyor project was the first contract won by the newly formed partnership entity.
Walter has undertaken both surface and underground construction projects for a number of mines in New South Wales and Queensland. Leading conveyor group Continental has designed, manufactured and installed materials handling and conveyor systems at mines in both states.
