UNDERGROUND COAL & LONGWALL MINING
Mitsui S200 MA roadheader with the addition of an in-house designed rockbolting and shotcrete boom, underground at the Kestrel project.
Redpath’s drive for underground coal
Redpath has secured its first dedicated underground coal mining contract
in Australia. With an eye to becoming a full turnkey provider to the sector,
it has established a separate coal mining division to capitalise on its success.
Redpath’s chief executive, Rob Nichols spoke to AJM.
The precast concrete flooring at one of the two drifts at Kestrel.
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R
edpath has released scant
details of its breakthrough dedicated
coal mining contract, save to say it
is a major coal driveage operation in central
Queensland. Nichols said the company’s
targeted focus on coal began in earnest with
the successful completion, in September 2011,
of two separate access drifts at the Kestrel
mine extension project.
“It was a mine development contract that
we won in partnership with Mastermyne for
Rio Tinto coal. Basically, the project was for
two access drifts through difficult country,
difficult ground conditions, to access a new
coal mine.”
Nichols said the company’s successful
implementation of “unique methods” at
Kestrel were the decisive factor behind
Redpath securing its inaugural coal mining
contract.
“We developed the sliding floor specifically
for the Kestrel mine extension project. This
innovative approach was key to us securing
our first contract in coal that we expect to
be part of even further growth for Redpath
over the coming months.”
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UNDERGROUND COAL & LONGWALL MINING
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Redpath’s sliding floor for the Kestrel
extension utilises hydraulic rams to move
the pre-cast concrete panels that comprise
the floor in a caterpillar like sequence. This
allows the floor to act as a base for the bridge
conveyor, ventilation duct installation and
extension systems.
Nichols said the company used a similar
floor technology in the original Kestrel mine
development in the early 1990’s, which it
re-engineered and modified for the recent
project. The technique provides access to
the mine quicker than alternative methods,
according to Nichols. He said the company
implemented several other innovations as well.
“Usually when you excavate the floor with
wet concrete, you are shutdown while it sets,
so you can’t be productive. When you allow
the concrete to go to set you can’t drive over
it, but by using precast panels we can install
them off the critical path so we can put more
productive time into the excavation cycle.
“On that job we had a road header at the
face, cutting the drift. We designed shotcrete
booms and rockbolting booms to go on that
header, to allow ground support to be put in
remotely, at the face. As you excavate the roof
is exposed, but we could support it straightaway without putting any people under it.”
Redpath, like other mining companies and
contractors, battles to hire new staff. And
once they have been found, it can take a long
time to turn novices into productive miners,
Nichols said.
“We have started to look outside the traditional mining areas, to civil and mechanical
engineers, and surveyors, to fill traditional
mining engineer roles.
“With the miners themselves we’ve been
lucky in some ways, because the Brisbane
tunnels have been coming to an end. So in
our recent projects we have recruited them
quite heavily.
“The induction processes to get them
employed is probably two to three weeks to
get them onsite and through the basic inductions. After that there is traditionally about a
three month period where they can’t touch
any equipment. They have got to be mentored
by a miner and then after that they can start
their training processes on equipment.
“To get anyone semi-useful to you on basic
equipment it is probably about three to six
months. To get them on a continuous miner at
the coal face takes about 12 months. That is
just to access the equipment. Training to
become a fully proficient continuous miner
operator, it is 12 months plus.”
Redpath employs around 490 staff across a
variety of projects in locations around the
country. Copper Mines of Tasmania takes the
lion’s share with 200 employees. However,
Nichols says Redpath is working on a number
AUSTRALIAN JOURNAL OF MINING
Redpath’s sliding floor innovation looking outbye at Kestrel.
Roadheader operator with the Mitsui S200 MA at Kestrel.
of potential coal projects and that he expects
the coal mining division to grow significantly
throughout 2012.
The Canadian-headquartered Redpath
expanded into Australia in September 2008
with its acquisition of Eroc. The latter firm
had a 40-year lineage, beginning in the
1960s as a division of Pearson Bridge,
before being absorbed, in turn, by Costain,
Peabody Coal and Pacific Coal, and emerging
through a management buyout as Eroc in
the late 1990’s.
“[There] have been changes of company
name, but the people stay the same and
basically the business has stayed the same,
being an underground contractor doing
tunnels, metalliferous work and some coal,”
Nichols explained.
Globally, Redpath provides a full range
of underground mining services, including
shaft sinking, mine development, contract
mining, raiseboring, mechanized raising and
underground construction services.
Based in Ontario, Redpath has regional
business offices in the USA, Indonesia,
Mongolia, Chile and South Africa.
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Contact: www.redpathmining.com
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