Following a successful underground commissioning, the mine powered up its longwall face Wednesday, within the month BMA scheduled for the start-up, and has been cutting coal since.
The mine is located adjacent to BMA's Goonyella opencut operation in central Queensland and is a punch longwall mining operation.
The equipment includes DBT roof supports and an EL3000 shearer with a total installed power of 1440kW including 2 x 600kW cutter motors and 2 x 100kW haulage motors.
At full capacity, the $A102 million mine will produce up to 3.6 million tonnes per annum of high quality coking coal. During September and October, the mine is scheduled to produce at a rate of around 200,000 tonnes per month, steadily ramping up to full capacity. The first block, longwall 1, will finish in April next year.
