Gray said bord and pillar methods held a “valuable place” alongside the dominant longwall and opencut methods in Australia, despite the method not enjoying the popularity it does in other countries such as the United States.

Many Australian mine owners have left behind seams of up to 2m in height whilst in West Virginia the state mines up to 150 million tons per annum of coal in seams less than 1.5m high.

ASX-listed contractor Bounty Industries specialises in thin seam mining and perceives itself not as a stand-alone miner, but a contractor that can add value to the bottom line of coal companies.

Gray said Bounty did not exist to do “what mine owners already do”, but instead aimed to recover coal that mine owners leave behind; improve production levels of mine owners where they have production problems; and increase the value of mine owners’ coal by mining excellent blending coals from left-behind coal.

Thin seams hold stronger properties than thicker seams and are in high demand from the steel industry. Thin seam coal can be used to blend with residual thick seam coal to deliver a premium price.

Bounty has managed to position itself as a thin seam specialist and proven that high productivity can be achieved from thin seams in Australia.

“Mining thin seam coal is simply a question of equipment, technique and attitude,” Gray said.

High productivity has been achieved by Bounty partly due to the company’s specialist equipment all imported from the US.

Bounty’s specialist equipment, with a mining range of 1.2-2.8m, includes three Joy 14CM15 continuous miners; one Joy 12CM15 continuous miner; three Stamler 42” continuous haulage systems; three Joy 10SC shuttle cars; four DBT Long Airdox battery-powered haulers; two Stamler feeder breakers; three Fletcher roof bolters; and three DBT Long Airdox battery-powered scoops.

The biggest equipment problem the company faces is the support capability. Bounty has dealt with this by enticing US mechanics and electricians to Australia and investing heavily in spare parts.

Bounty has also now reduced lead time for its equipment, from ordering to rebuild, to six months.

At Bounty’s Centennial contract at Ivanhoe, the contractor was extracting from a 1.8m seam with one continuous miner, two shuttle cars, one bolter, one scoop and a feeder breaker. The company averaged 70m per shift and 21t per metre.

They operated on a four-day production roster and one-day belt move. Overall, Bounty averaged 50,000 ROM tonnes per month (600,000 ROM tonnes annualised). With 23 employees that’s 2200 tonnes per employee per month.

At Bounty’s Aquila contract with Capcoal the company has been extracting from a 1.6m seam height, mining over longwall goafs with nine headings in panels, 30m by 30m pillars with a 90m stretch from one side to the other. Equipment at the site includes one continuous miner, three shuttle cars, two una-haulers, two bolters and one feeder breaker.

At Aquila, Bounty has been ramping up production with 48,000t produced last month.

“The 48,000t in May really wasn’t acceptable and we are now targeting 70,000t per month with an annual aim of 850,000 to 1 million tonnes per annum,” Gray said.

During September this year the company plans to replace its shuttle cars, una-haulers and feeder breaker with a Stamler continuous haulage system.

At its contracts Bounty uses small pillars in multiple headings and separates the mining and bolting processes. It uses a three-way feeder dumping point, forced (blowing) ventilation, vacuum drilling for roof bolting, power and conveyor belt extensions integrated into the mining cycle and minimal material handling through the use of continuous haulage.

On top of its specialist equipment, Bounty also holds a thin-seam specialist workforce, with 50% of miners brought in from the US.

“One half of our labour force is American, with experience, attitudes and beliefs that high productivity rates are possible,” Gray said.

He said it was not hard to recruit US miners to Australia as they saw it “as a wonderful opportunity”

“They enjoy operating in 1.6m seams here – they see it as a luxury compared to what they are used to!”

The Australian labour force is recruited on the basis of an open attitude and belief system; and a mining culture of employee ownership, involvement and sense of urgency is instilled in the Bounty workforce.

As American expatriate and Bounty managing director Larry Cook said: “I can mine as well standing up as leaning over!”