WORLD COAL
®
JANUARY 2016
JANUARY 2016 - VOLUME 25 NUMBER 1
www.worldcoal.com
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Contents
Contents
03
Comment
05
Coal News
12
33
Industry View: Global Trends In Coal To 2020
Clifford Smee, Timetric, Australia.
14
Good Intentions
Despite industry reform and growing output from Coal India,
the Indian coal sector is beset by persistent problems that will
hamper growth. Mitchell Hugers, BMI Research, UK reports.
The Evolving Face Of Coal
The Clean Power Plan hit a US coal industry already struggling
with other regulatory challenges and competition from natural
gas. But despite the industry’s current woes, it’s not going away
anytime soon, as Andrew Moore, Platts, USA, reports.
Roof Bolting & Grouting
25
Keeping Things Running Smoothly
Bernhard Schust, Voith Turbo GmbH & Co. KG, Germany,
outlines how fluid couplings can help to ensure smooth
conveyor operation.
Shovels & Trucks
41
Special Report: The US
20
Conveyor Components
36
Regional Report: India
A Path To Development
Brian Thompson, Joy Global, explains how the company’s fleet
of miner bolters has helped mines to overcome bottlenecks and
improve reliability.
45
Suppliers Round-Up Special: No Tyring Out
Mike Brown, Kal Tire, UK, provides an overview of the
company’s True Tire Technology.
Setting A Platform
Frank Wickert, Flanders, USA, explains how the Freedom
Platform for shovels can enhance DC rope shovel performance,
while minimising the structural stresses inherent in mine
environments.
Screening & Sizing
Sheer Strength
Naj Aziz, Jan Nemcik and Ali Mirzaghorbanali,
University of Wollongong, Australia, discuss shear strength
properties of cable bolts.
49
Coal Crushing
Dr York Reichardt and Sven Heuer, Hazemag, Germany,
elaborate on the use of crushers in coal operations.
Special Report: Big Data and Mining
53
This month's
front cover

Small Steps To Big Results
Steve Bradbury, Dingo, USA, explains the Compound Effect
and illustrates how maximising on data to improve seemingly
small decisions can lead to big results.
Productive, profitable and powerful – three words that best describe the Komatsu
PC3000. Customers all around the globe value Komatsu’s hydraulic mining
shovels and excavators for their top availability, peak performance and highest
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For more information: www.komatsu-mining.de
World Coal is a fully-audited member of the Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC).
An audit certificate is available from our sales department on request.
Copyright © Palladian Publications Ltd 2016. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted
in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner. All views
expressed in this journal are those of the respective contributors and are not necessarily the opinions of the publisher, neither does the publisher endorse any
of the claims made in the advertisements. Printed in the UK. Uncaptioned images courtesy of www.shutterstock.com
High angle, high volume productivity
The Joy brand HAC system is proven to be a versatile, cost-saving method for elevating
or lowering a variety of materials at extremely steep angles. It’s a system that lives up
to today’s industry demands for high-volume rates, adaptable conveyor profiles, and
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helping companies worldwide move material in a variety of markets.
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Joy Global, Joy and HAC are trademarks of Joy Global Inc. or one of its affiliates.
© 2015 Joy Global Inc. or one of its affiliates.
Comment
Comment
P
Jonathan Rowland – Editor
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Gordon Cope Ng Weng Hoong
Publisher
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erhaps the most headline-grabbing number contained in
Joy Global’s most recent quarterly result was US$1.343 billion.
That was the size of the loss the company booked in the three months
to the end of October on the back of a US$1.199 billion writedown of its
underground reporting unit.
Similarly gloomy headlines (and eye-watering numbers) are not hard to
find in the mining industry at the moment. Caterpillar is expecting a 5%
fall in its revenues in 2016 on the back of a 10% fall in its mining‑related
revenues. That will mark the first time in its history that the company has
reported four consecutive years of falling sales. Since peaking in 4Q12,
Caterpillar’s Resource Industries business segment has seen sales fall from
US$5.776 billion in 4Q12 to just US$1.796 billion in 3Q15.
Looking at mining CAPEX numbers and it’s not hard to see why
mining equipment manufacturers are taking a hit. Global mining CAPEX
fell by 26% in 2015 and is expected to keep heading down this year (-19%)
and in 2017 (-6%), according to a recent Susquehanna Financial Group
research note. Meanwhile the US coal industry is now in its fifth
consecutive year of belt tightening with the cuts averaging around 30% per
year since 2013.
Is it all gloom then? Well not entirely. Although impressively large,
Joy’s fall into the red was non-cash: its underlying business is stronger
than that headline figure suggests. As Ted Grace, Research Analyst at
Susquehanna Financial Group, told World Coal, Joy’s management have
done an “excellent job” of managing through the downturn – cutting costs,
strengthening the balance sheet and restructuring debt, and developing
new products that take the company out of its traditional markets. These
efforts will leave Joy in a relatively strong position when the turnaround
comes. Indeed, the company may return to growth sooner than most on
the back of its new product lines and cost‑cutting measures.
The slowdown in the commodity market is not yet over and this year is
looking like another difficult one for anyone involved in digging things
out of the ground. But the mining industry has always been cyclical and it
always swings back around – because ultimately people will always need
mined commodities. And yes, that includes coal.
Nor does the current market mean an end to opportunity. Joy hasn’t
stopped developing new product lines despite its falling revenues; it looks
well set to take advantage of that investment. Murray Energy saw an
opportunity when it bought two Colombian mines, as did Bowie
Resources more recently when it agreed to buy Peabody Energy’s
New Mexico and Colorado mines. In Australia, Stanmore Coal’s plans to
re-open the Isaac Plains mine, bought from Vale and Sumitomo last year,
shows a smaller company smelling profit where a major couldn’t.
Not every risk will pay off; the downturn will surely claim more
victims before it has run its course. But the old maxim still holds true:
fortune favours the bold. While it may be easy to be blinded by the doom
and gloom that dominates reports on the industry, there’s always some
light to be found for those with the vision and gumption to find it.
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Coal News
Coal News
INTERNATIONAL Majors continue to wrestle with impact of commodities downturn
L
ast month saw two of the world’s
biggest mining companies,
Anglo American and Glencore, announce
significant measures to counter the
downturn in the mining industry.
Anglo American has put forward
proposals that could lead to the company
losing about two-thirds of its workforce and
assets as mines are sold or closed.
“We are setting out an accelerated and
more aggressive restructuring of the
portfolio to focus around our ‘Priority 1’
[assets],” Mark Cutifani, CEO of Anglo said
at a recent investors day.
The company will also aim for
US$3.7 billion of cost and productivity
improvements by 2017, while CAPEX will
be cut by a further US$1 billion to the end of
2016 with a US$2.9 billion aggregate CAPEX
reduction for 2015 – 2017 compared to
original guidance.
“As we redefine our operational
footprint, we are aligning our organisation
to ensure optimal efficiency and
effectiveness,” continued Cutifani.
Meanwhile, Glencore will reduce its 2016
coal production by 22 – 27 million t
compared to its original guidance, the
company said in an investor presentation.
This comes on top of the 20 million t of
managed production cuts in coal output in
2015. The company’s coal production
guidance for 2016 now stands at
127 – 133 million t.
The cuts to coal output form part of a
swath of production cuts that will reduce the
mining and trading giant’s copper, zinc,
lead, nickel, ferrochrome and oil production.
Glencore also said that it was increasing its
debt reduction target to US$13 billion from
US$10.2 billion by the end of 2016, having
already achieved US$8.7 billion of savings.
As well as production, the company is
taking an axe to its CAPEX, reducing it from
US$11 billion to US$9.5 billion over 2015 and
2016 with cuts coming to coal projects in
Australia and South Africa.
“We want to have the balance sheet in a
position where the ‘what ifs’ don’t affect us,”
Glencore CEO, Ivan Glasenberg told
investors, referring to an incident last year
when hedge funds questioned whether the
company’s equity would retain any value if
the copper prices fell to under US$4000/t.
INTERNATIONAL Thiess announces contract wins in Australia and Mongolia
O
ver the past month, CIMIC
Group’s global mining contractor
business, Thiess, has been extending,
winning and securing mine operation
contracts worth over AUS$2.5 billion
across Australia and Mongolia.
First, the company was awarded a
contract to operate Glencore’s Mt Owen
coal mine in the Hunter Valley of New
South Wales. The contract is expected to
generate AUS$760 million in revenue for
Thiess and builds on the contract miner’s
longstanding relationship with the
mine.“Our ongoing work at this
geologically complex mine is testament to
the relationship with Thiess and Glencore
and the expertise within our organisation,”
said Thiess’ Managing Director,
Michael Wright.
Meanwhile, in Queensland, Thiess
announced contracts with Jellinbah Group,
QCoal Group and Anglo American.
The Australian mining contractor was
awarded a contract extension worth
AUS$1.3 billion by Jellinbah Group to
continue its operations at Lake Vermont coal
mine in the Bowen Basin in Central
Queensland, Australia. The three-year
contract extension continues Thiess’ turnkey
mining operations at the opencast mine
until December 2021, continuing a working
relationship that goes back to 2007 when
Thiess was contracted to build the mine
infrastructure, including coal handling
preparation plant, site office and workshop.
Also in Queensland, Thiess won an
AUS$250 million contract from QCoal
Group to operate the QCoal Northern Hub
mines, in Queensland’s Bowen Basin. The
contract will run for three years with an
option for a one-year extension and covers
the continuation of operation at the Sonoma
and Drake coal mines.
Additionally Thiess gained an
AUS$115 million contract to continue
operating the southern pits of the Dawson
coal mine in Central Queensland. According
to the company, the new two-year
agreement with mine owner Anglo
American builds on a long‑standing
involvement at the mine. Under the new
contract, Thiess will provide mining
services including the removal of
overburden and coal mining.
Away from its home market and Thiess
signed a four-year contract extension with
Mongolian coal miner, Energy Resources, to
operate the Ukhaa Khudag (UHG) coal
mine, in southern Mongolia. The contract
extension follows the current eight year
agreement signed in 2008 and results in
Thiess continuing mine operations and
maintenance delivery until 2022.
Thiess is responsible for mining services
at the UHG mine, including fleet operation
and maintenance for overburden stripping,
coal mining and blast drilling under an
alliance structure, with involvement also in
mine planning and health, safety and
environmental management. This extension
is set to deliver up to AUS$1 billion of
revenue during the next seven years.
5 | World Coal | January 2016
Coal News
DIARY DATES
Coaltrans USA
28 – 29 January 2016
Miami, USA
www.coaltrans.com/usa
SME Annual Meeting and Expo
21 – 24 February 2016
Phoenix, USA
www.smeannualconference.com
Coaltrans India
3 – 4 March 2016
Goa, India
www.coaltrans.com/India
PDAC Convention
6 – 9 March 2016
Toronto, Canada
www.pdac.ca/convention
ACPS Annual Conference
13 – 17 March 2016
Wollongong, Australia
www.acps.com.au/conference-2016
bauma 2016
11 – 17 April 2016
Munich, Germany
www.bauma.de
Coaltrans China
14 – 16 April 2016
Beijing, China
www.coaltrans.com/china
ELECTRIC POWER
18 – 21 April 2016
Louisiana, USA
www.electricpowerexpo.com
Coal Prep 2016
25 – 27 April 2016
Louisville, USA
www.coalprepshow.com
AIMS 2016
18 – 19 May 2016
Aachen, Germany
www.aims.rwth-aachen.de
XVIII International Coal Preparation Congress
28 June – 1 July 2016
St. Petersburg, USA
icpc-2016.com
MINExpo 2016
26 – 28 September 2016
Las Vegas, US
www.minexpo.com
6 | World Coal | January 2016
CEO INTERVIEW Glenn Kellow, Peabody Energy
W
ith the global coal industry
facing unprecidented
market conditions, World Coal spoke
to Glenn Kellow, President and CEO
of Peabody Energy, the world’s
largest private-sector coal company,
about its business, recent changes
in the company’s leadership and his
view on the long-term prospects for
coal.
Peabody is the world’s
largest private-sector coal
company. Tell us about
your platform.
Peabody serves metallurgical and
thermal coal customers in more than
25 countries on six continents. We
have more than 7 billion short t of
reserves and ownership interests in
ports and generation projects in
multiple countries.
Our portfolio is shaped around
core regions, including the
Powder River Basin (PRB) and
Illinois Basin in the US, as well as the
Bowen Basin, Hunter Valley and
Illawarra region in Australia. These
regions have the best market access
and lowest costs. Our flagship
operation in the PRB, the North
Antelope Rochelle mine, is the world’s
largest and most productive coal
mine, shipping more coal each year
than most nations.
Safety is a top priority
for the industry. How is
Peabody’s performance in
this area?
Safety is our first value and core to our
mission. Peabody is on track for
another record year of safety
performance in 2015, marked by a
double digit improvement in
Australia’s results as of 3Q15. We
continue working toward a goal of
operating incident free.
Our Wambo underground mine in
New South Wales, Australia, also
brought home unique safety honours,
earning the highest national honour in
the Australian Mines Rescue
competition. The team is set to
represent Australia at the
international championships in
Canada in 2016.
Even though Peabody
is a 130-plus yr old
company, it appears to
be reinventing itself with
the appointment of a
new management team.
Tell us about the recent
changes.
All of our executive leadership has
joined the team since 2013,
representing a mix from both within
and outside of Peabody, which
includes more than 150 yr of
industry experience and 60 yr of
Peabody service combined. Amy
Schwetz, who held a number of key
financial roles across the
corporation, was promoted within
Peabody and took the helm as
Executive Vice President and
Chief Financial Officer this past year.
Verona Dorch was recruited as
Executive Vice President,
Chief Legal Officer, Government
Affairs and Corporate Secretary
late last summer. Both Amy and
Verona are skilled, hands-on leaders.
In addition, Robert Malone has
been named Chairman of the Board,
succeeding Greg Boyce who
retired at the end of December last
year. Bob is a valued and
well‑regarded energy and mining
veteran.
Coal News
The coal industry continues
to navigate turbulent
times. What is your view of
long‑term energy markets?
In recognising the importance of coal
to long-term energy demand, we
have to start with the premise that
access to affordable energy is a basic
necessity and essential for quality of
life. Over the past century, access to
electricity has brought an
extraordinary transformation to our
lives, and coal’s contribution has been
far reaching.
Coal has been the world’s
fastest‑growing major fuel this decade,
underpinning urbanisation and lifting
billions to better, longer lives. Today
we are seeing more than 75 million
people added to cities each year,
which creates greater demand for
modern conveniences and
infrastructure that require steel to make
and energy to use. And this ultimately
points to use of coal. All forms of
energy are needed to meet these
demands. Coal is unique in its scale,
cost and reliability.
Peabody, along with others, believes
in favourable long-term demand trends
for coal, which is approaching oil in
terms of use. In a recent analysis, Wood
Mackenzie projected that coal would
surpass oil as the world’s largest
energy source in coming years.
What measures is Peabody
taking to help the company
weather the storm in global
markets?
Peabody’s new management team is
taking aggressive steps to improve the
business with an intense focus on the
operational, organisational, portfolio
and financial areas of our business. Let
me run through our progress:
nn The business lowered costs while
often lowering production in line
with market factors. We have an
unmatched portfolio of assets,
geographic diversity and operations
in some of the best mining regions
in the US and Australia.
nn We created a leaner organisation
structure at the management and
administrative level and had the
lowest overhead costs in a decade,
down 29% from the prior year.
nn Our asset base provides option
value to hold for development,
transfer into joint venture
opportunities or to monetise.
We’re currently advancing
multiple processes, including
the sale of our New Mexico and
Colorado assets to Bowie Resource
Partners in a transaction that is
expected to close during the first
quarter of 2016.
nn Our dual financial objectives
are optimising our liquidity and
reducing debt. Opportunities
for deleveraging could include
proceeds from assets sales,
reduced cash outlays for cost or
capital management, rising cash
flows from any eventual market
improvements, or buybacks and
exchanges of debt.
Beyond the planned sale
of your New Mexico and
Colorado assets, are any
further mine sales planned?
Our criteria for evaluating
opportunities for potential sale of
certain mines or non-core assets
includes strategic fit, value
considerations, potential growth and
capital or cash requirements. Making
the right deal is as important as the
timing.
What is your longer‑term
view of US coal markets?
While natural gas prices were lower in
2015, we expect prices to increase over
time from new industrial demand,
LNG export capacity, Mexico pipelines
and slower production growth. The
PRB and Illinois Basin are
best‑positioned and will benefit
from higher utilisation and basin
switching.
Energy policy is a
major topic for global
leaders. What are your
views on the steps needed
for a low‑carbon energy
future?
We all share the goals of affordable
energy, strong economies and a clean
environment. We believe use of
advanced coal technologies presents a
ready-today solution toward
low‑carbon energy systems for
policymakers worldwide.
Deployment of high-efficiency
low-emissions technologies, which can
achieve a 25% reduction in the carbon
dioxide (CO2) emissions rate, will
play an increasingly significant role
in meeting greenhouse gas
commitments. As an example, moving
the current average global efficiency
rate of coal-fueled power to
supercritical levels could deliver the
equivalent environmental benefit of
reducing India’s annual CO2 emissions
to zero.
Longer term, world leaders
recognise that policy measures are
urgently needed to accelerate
development of carbon capture
utilisation and storage technologies,
which will drive toward the
ultimate goal of near-zero emissions
from coal.
7 | World Coal | January 2016
Coal News
Coal News
AUSTRALIA Tinkler’s Australian Pacific Coal acquires Dartbrook coal mine
A
nglo American and Australian
Pacific Coal (AQC) have reached a
binding agreement for AQC to purchase
Anglo’s 83.33% interest in the Dartbrook
coal mine in the Hunter Valley, New
South Wales, for up to AUS$50 million
(approximately US$36 million). The sale is
expected to be completed by mid-2016.
There will be an upfront cash payment of
AUS$25 million and the grant of a royalty
equal to AUS$3.0 for each tonne of coal
produced by the operation in the future and
AUS$0.25 for each tonne of coal sourced
from other sites and processed using
Dartbrook’s processing infrastructure.
Placed into care and maintenance in
2006 on the back of gas drainage,
geotechnical and water issues, as well as a
number of fatalities, Dartbrook was a
multiseam longwall operation with a
resource base of just over 400 million t of
low rank bituminous coal. It was also a
reasonably high‑cost operation, requiring
production of about 3.5 million tpy in order
to be profitable with the cost of gas
drainage adding significantly to costs. “As
the production declined and it was
considered unlikely to improve, the mine
was placed into care and maintenance,
where it has remained, even in the height of
the mining boom,” Lloyd Hain, Senior
Consultant at CRU, explained to
World Coal.
AQC now plans to rejuvinate the site
with a 5 million tpy opencast mine north of
the current underground workings. “The
Dartbrook JV presents a unique
opportunity to acquire a tier 1 asset that is
not only strategically located but also
well-equipped with existing infrastructure
and facilities,” said Nathan Tinkler, CEO
and Managing Director of AQC.
Despite its troubled past, Hain is
positive on the economics of AQC’s
proposal: “Based on the stated plan to
produce 5 million tpa, previous opencast
studies done on the deposit and current
industry cost structures, we estimate that
the FOB cost to the Port of Newcastle for
the opencast coal to be approximately
US$48/t in 2016 dollars, which compared
to the current Newcastle price of US$52/t
would provide a small return. However,
when taking into account the purchase
price of AUS$50 million, as well as the cost
to develop and construct the opencast
operation and connect it to the existing coal
handling and preparation plant and train
loadout infrastructure, we estimate that a
price of US$64/t would be required to
make an economic return on this
investment.“
“Considering a typical 3 – 5 yr time
frame to conduct environmental and
engineering studies and navigate the
approvals process, we believe that growing
demand for thermal coal in Asia, outside of
China, and a limited pipeline of low capital
projects, we forecast the coal price
recovering to this level within the timeframe
required to make this project economic, and
it would place this project in the second
quartile of the cost curve,” Hain concluded.
Yet developing the proposed mine may
not be an easy process – particularly when
it comes to permitting. Recent campaigns
by the thoroughbred horse industry in the
region have already seen Anglo American’s
Drayton South expansion project blocked; it
is unlikely to approve of opencast mining at
Dartbrook. The local council is also
opposed to opencast mining. This “makes
the task of navigating the approvals process
by far the riskiest part of this purchase,”
said Hain.
But Tinkler is no stranger to risk, having
already made (and lost) a fortune betting
on coal – a fuel he remains committed to
despite its current troubles: “Thermal coal
will remain one of the core sources of
energy production and if we can position
this asset to be in the lowest cost quartile
we are well placed to ride on that demand.”
AUSTRALIA Third berth at Hay Point Coal Terminal officially opened
Q
ueensland Premier,
Annastaci Palaszczuk, has
officially opened the new third berth
at BHP Billiton Mitsubishi Alliance’s
(BMA) Hay Point Coal Terminal. This
move increases the export capacity from
44 million tpy to 55 million tpy. The
premier was joined by the President
of BHP Billiton’s Coal Business,
Mike Henry, and Chief Operating
8 | World Coal | January 2016
Officer of Mitsubishi Corp.’s Mineral
Resources Investment Division,
Rick Tanaka, at the official ceremony.
The US$3 billion project, near Mackay
in Central Queensland, comprised the
construction of a new berth and
shiploader alongside the existing two
berths. It also included the replacement
of the existing jetty, trestle conveyors
and surge bins and linking conveyors.
“I want to thank BHP Billiton and
Mitsubishi for their confidence in the
Queensland coal export market and their
contribution to the Queensland economy,
despite coal prices having declined
markedly in recent years,” said
Palaszczuk. Queensland is one of the
world’s major exporters of coal with
shipments hitting a record of 219 million t
in the financial year to June 2015.
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Coal News
Coal News
INTERNATIONAL Exploration and mine development news
A
round-up of news from coal
projects around the world.
Australia
Glencore
Glencore has announced that its
proposed Blakefield North underground
coal project has been placed on hold in
response to continuing low prices in the
global thermal and metallurgical coal
markets. “We have to ensure that the
volumes and qualities of coal we
produce are aligned with market
requirements. We will not push
incremental tonnes into markets that
don’t want them or need them,” the
company said. The project, located near
Bulga, was expected to start in 2017.
Leigh Creek Energy
Leigh Creek Energy Ltd (LCK) has
carried out inferred resource and
exploration target estimations, and
reported an initial JORC inferred coal
resource of 377 million t at its
Leigh Creek Energy project (LCEP).
This result is within the company’s
previously announced target range of
220 – 530 million t. LCK intends to
commence additional drilling, coal
quality test work and seismic surveys
during 2016 in order to extend
confidence in coal quality and to
upgrade deposit certainty and
commerciality. The LCEP aims to
develop the area’s deep coal reserves,
using an underground coal gasification
process to turn the coal into gas for
supply into Australia’s east coast
gas network.
Stanmore Coal
Stanmore Coal has announced it is to
restart operations at Isaac Plains in
10 | World Coal | January 2016
1H16 after it acquired the shuttered
metallurgical coal mine from Vale and
Sumitomo Corp. in August. The
company said that the recommencement
of mining at Isaac Plains would create
about 150 new jobs in the Moranbah
region of Queensland, as well as paying
AUS$7 million in annual royalties to the
state government. First coal is expected
to be shipped in April 2016.
Wollongong Coal
Wollongong Coal is to restart operations
at its Wongawilli coal mine in New
South Wales after placing the mine into
care and maintenance last year. The
decision comes after the New South
Wales Planning Assessment
Commission (PAC) last month
approved a five-year extension to the
Wongawilli mining licence. The
company has signed a two-year contract
with Delta SBD, one of the largest
contract mining companies in the
Australian underground coal mining
industry, to oversee and manage the
recommencement of the operations.
Delta SBD will provide technical
expertise, personnel and equipment
services at the mine, as well as
managing day-to-day operations.
Mongolia
Aspire Mining
Aspire Mining subsidiary Northern
Railways has received its construction
licence for the Erdenet-to-Ovoot
Railway from the Mongolian
government. The licence allows
negotiations to start for the grant of a
long-term lease for the land on which
the railway will be built, as well as
enabling Northern Railways to enter
into land use agreements with local
communities along the line’s route. It
also allows for the establishment of a
commission to agree traffic management
protocols and the point at which the
Erdenet-to-Ovoot line will connect to
the existing network. The 574 km rail
project forms part of Mongolia’s Rail
Policy to provide rail access to its
northern provinces through the
extension of the existing rail network
from Erdenet to the Russian-Mongolian
border at Arts Suuri.
Additionally, Aspire has announced
that its Ekhgoviin Chuluu Joint Venture
(ECJV) with the Noble Group has
received proximate analysis from core
samples taken from the 2015 exploration
programme at the Nuurstei coal project.
Washability test work on samples from
the first four holes show moderate
yields of a high‑quality coking coal.
South Africa
Baobab Mining & Exploration
Chinese industrial conglomerate,
Qingdao Hengshun Zhongsheng Group
(Hengshun), could acquire a 34% stake
in Baobab Mining & Exploration, the
owner of the Makhado hard coking coal
project in South Africa, for
US$113.95 million, following the signing
of a non-binding memorandum of
understanding (MoU) with Baobab’s
parent company, Coal of Africa (CoAL).
The deal remains subject to CoAL
shareholder and regulatory approval, as
well as subject to Hengshun being
awarded the engineering, procurement
and construction contract for the project.
The Makhado project contains
344.8 million t of mineable coal and
forms part of the Greater Soutpansberg
project in the Soutpansberg Coalfield in
Limpopo Province.
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Industry View
Industry View
GLOBAL TRENDS IN COAL TO 2020 Clifford Smee, Timetric, Australia
O
ver the next five years, the global
coal industry is expected to
witness a fundamental structural change
to the seaborne market: a move away
from Chinese led demand growth. The
last 10 yr have seen significant growth
in the global seaborne market. But with
global production seeming to have peaked
in 2014, serious issues remain as to its
sustainability.
The majority of global coal reserves are
located in the US, followed by Russia,
China, Australia, India and Germany,
which collectively account for 76.9% of the
global total. The major producers are China,
the US, India, Australia, Indonesia and
Russia, collectively accounting for 81.1% of
global production in 2014. Logically, this
means that a country, such as Indonesia, is
rather rapidly depleting its reserves. Over
the forecast period, these rankings will
remain the same, with little movement in
position, as had happened with the rapid
rise of Indonesia over the previous decade
when production increased from
154 million t in 2005 to 458 million t in 2014.
Other developed countries, such as
Australia and the US, may never find an
economic need to exploit their reserves.
For the two largest consumers of coal,
China and the US, serious efforts are now
being made to curtail coal use, which
contributed to global consumption
decreasing in 2014. Consumption in 2014
fell by 62 million t compared to 2013, and it
will likely decrease again in 2015. This
would be the first fall in consecutive years
in recent history. Efforts to curtail
consumption include increased
environmental protection regulations and
the US government’s plans to decrease
overall coal consumption by 180.4 million t
and by 2.2% in electricity generation in 2015
over 2014. The Chinese government has
also initiated an ambitious campaign to
diversify its energy sources, consolidate its
12 | World Coal | January 2016
coal mines and cap consumption,
announcing various coal quality restrictions
and a ban on new developments of
coal-fired plants.
Delving deeper into Chinese coal
production, over the last decade global
production has continuously increased,
mainly due to increased production in
China. Yet, Chinese coal production
decreased to an estimated 3.59 billion t in
2014: the first fall registered since 2000.
Most Chinese coal mines are located in
Inner Mongolia, Shanxi, Shaanxi and
Xinjiang. In 2014, coal output in Inner
Mongolia fell by 12% to 123 million t, while
production in Shanxi was relatively flat
increasing by just 1.5% over 2013. Since the
state-owned enterprises account for
approximately 62% of total domestic coal
production, both provincial and central
governments have initiated measures to
support domestic industry, including a
reduction in provincial-level mining fees
and royalties, the imposition of an import
tax of 3% and 6% on metallurgical and
thermal coal respectively and a reduction in
export tax from 10% to 3%.
Without robust demand growth from
China and the developed economies, there
is likely to be little support for prices.
Hence, the world is unlikely to see a return
of US$100/t prices for thermal coal over
the forecast period; prices are instead
expected to stay around US$60/t FOB
(Newcastle 6700 GAD) to 2020. The net
effect of prices at these levels will be that
export-oriented countries, such as
Australia, Indonesia and Colombia, will
have to focus on reducing operating costs
to stay competitive in the seaborne market.
These countries will increasingly close their
higher-cost smaller coal mines, with large
expanding opencast mines taking their
place.
Over the forecast period, global coal
mine production is projected to grow
moderately at a CAGR of 1.6% to
8.6 billion t in 2020. This very moderate
growth will be mainly driven by
developing Asian countries,
predominately India. In India, the
government plans to quickly increase coal
production and allow private investment
in the industry. The government’s decision
to reallocate all 204 coal blocks, which
were earlier declared illegal by the
Supreme Court of India in December 2014,
is projected to increase coal production to
over 1 billion t in 2020. Coal is a major
source of energy in the country; it has the
largest share as a raw material for energy
production and an increase in population
is expected to drive growth in demand for
energy.
Other potential growth countries are
Russia and the former Soviet Union
countries. Recently, the Russian
government announced plans to increase
the use of coal as one of its primary energy
sources from 25% in 2014 to 27% in 2020. In
contrast, very few new large-scale projects
in the US, Australia and Indonesia,
announced in the boom era, are likely to be
developed over the next five years.
By 2020, the global coal market will
likely have shifted from its reliance on
China, with export-based countries having
stagnating production and a shift away
from the seaborne market for many coal
consumers, such as China. The one
exception to this will be India, which will
continue to increase in coal consumption
driving both domestic production and
import demand growth.
Note
This article is based on the report ‘Global Coal
Mining to 2020’ (Timetric; August 2015).
About the author
Clifford Smee is Lead Analyst – Mining at
Timetric.
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Despite industry reform and growing output from
Coal India, the Indian coal sector is beset by persistent
problems that will hamper growth. Mitchell Hugers,
BMI Research, UK, reports.
GOOD
A
lthough India possesses one of the world’s
largest coal reserves and has significant
production growth potential, the country will
continue to suffer from a persistent coal deficit
over the coming years. The Indian government has made
great progress in improving coal mine production and coal
offtake in recent quarters. As a result, BMI has raised its
production forecast, with India’s coal output to grow from
753 million t in 2016 to 935 million t in 2019, posting average
annual growth of 7.4% during 2016 – 2019, a sizeable
acceleration from an average growth of 4.4% annually
during 2011 – 2015.
While impressive, these growth rates will fall short of the
government’s ambitious target. Despite passing the Coal
Mines (Special Provisions) Bill, two key challenges will limit
the sector’s growth. Firstly, attracting foreign players will be
hampered by coal unions. The strike in January 2015 by coal
14 | World Coal | January 2016
unions highlighted the need to address the union’s concerns
before making any changes to the current policies. Secondly,
low coal prices will limit investment from entering the
sector. BMI forecast thermal coal prices to average US$62.0/t
during 2016 – 2019, significantly lower than US$85/t during
2006 – 2015. Moreover, the lack of infrastructure
modernisation and the government’s inability to push
through the land acquisition bill will limit the development
of coal infrastructure, which will impede coal output growth
over the coming years.
Government reforms taking shape
In March 2015, the Indian government passed the Coal Mines
(Special Provisions) Bill. BMI believes that this bill will help
boost domestic production as it has removed the state
monopoly held by Coal India. Under the new law, private
mining companies are allowed to enter the domestic coal
High altitude pastures in Ladakh, India.
INTENTIONS
market – a previously state-monopolised sector – to sell and
produce coal. Although the removal of Coal India’s
monopoly has caused disruptions in its operations as union
members walked off the job in January 2015, the government
has managed to end these strikes in an expedient manner,
highlighting that reforms are indeed possible if the
government manages to address the concerns of the miners.
The ability to pass the special provisions bill has aided
India’s government’s efforts to auction off the 214 coal
blocks whose licences were cancelled by the Supreme Court
on 24 September 2014. As of mid-April 2015, it had
successfully auctioned off 66 coal blocks for more than
Indian Rupee 3.5 trillion.
Overly ambitious
Coal India’s target coal production of 925 million t of coal
output by 2019 – 2020 will not be achieved. For the company
to meet this production target, it would have to sustain an
average annual growth of 13.4% y/y from 2015 – 2020.
Under the direction of the current Minister of State for
Power, Coal and New & Renewable Energy, Piyush Goyal,
Coal India’s production increased 8.9% over
April – September 2015, compared to the same period the
previous year, signalling that some progress has been made
in improving productivity. Given that the institutional
portion of Coal India’s equity sale in January 2015 was 1.2
times oversubscribed, BMI believes that Coal India would
be able to attract capital from equity markets if it manages
to deal properly with its unions. This would allow it to
purchase foreign machinery to further sustain
improvements in productivity in order to meet its
production targets.
Coal India’s productivity is indeed starting from a low
base. In the 2013 – 2014 fiscal year, it produced 12.2 t and 0.8 t
January 2016 | World Coal | 15
of coal per man-shift in opencast and
underground mines, respectively,
which pales in comparison to Australia
where opencast coal and underground
mining production per man-shift
amounted to 74 t and 40 t, respectively.
Coal India’s machines also work
15 hr/day, compared with 22 hr/day in
Australia.
forecasts of annual average growth of
7.4% in 2016 – 2019.
Although it is possible for
Coal India to hit its production targets
by sustaining annual average
production growth of 13.4% during
2016 – 2020, four key obstacles remain,
besides improving productivity and
production:
Brakes on growth to
remain
nn The opening of new mines could
remain hampered if environmental
clearances are not made in
an expedient manner. As of
August 2014, Coal India had 48
mines awaiting environmental
Barring any announcements of capital
injections and major increases in
CAPEX, BMI is reluctant to further
upgrade its already optimistic
Prices to remain relatively low: Newcastle thermal coal (US$/t).
Source: BMI, Bloomberg.
clearances. It currently has close to
500 mines in operation.
nn Coal India might not be able
to construct sufficient railway
infrastructure by 2020 to
improve offtake, which would
limit efforts to open mines that
could add about 300 milion tpa
of coal production from the
states of Odisha, Jharkhand and
Chhattisgarh.
nn Given India’s insistence on not
exceeding its targeted budget
deficit, the government will need
to come up with an innovative
workaround to finance the
purchase of new freight trains
by India Railways in order to
transport the coal, other than
raising railway fares, as the cost
of railway travel is an extremely
sensitive issue to the public.
nn The threat of strikes by mining
unions could derail efforts to
improve productivity. Given that
Coal India produces approximately
80% of India’s coal, by going
on strike the coal unions could
plunge the entire country into
darkness. Given the opposition
faced by the government when it
wanted to privatise a small stake
of Coal India in the past year,
the threat of renewed strikes by
union workers poses downside
risks on Coal India’s ability to
raise further capital from equity
markets to fund major upgrades
in equipment. India’s efforts to
introduce competition to the
de facto monopoly by allowing
foreign private players might
result in long-lasting strikes, which
could significantly reduce the
company’s operating performance
and stymie its efforts to raise
productive capacity by acquiring
more modern equipment.
Imports to remain strong
– for now
Coal imports to remain elevated: India – thermal and metallurgical coal imports
(million t).
Source: BMI, Bloomberg.
16 | World Coal | January 2016
Coal imports will remain strong over
the coming quarters as India will
continue to be unable to meet domestic
coal consumption. Even though
domestic coal production is rising
faster than domestic consumption,
seaborne coal demand from power
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plants along the coast will remain
strong due to a lack of transport
infrastructure and low coal prices. As a
result of new capacity additions, coal
consumption in the country remains
higher than production, with a
structural deficit of 129 million t in
2015. In the long term, as India
attempts to hit its ambitious plans of
doubling production by 2020 and
production from its auctioned coal
mines finally comes online, imports
are expected to fall. For instance,
during the first eight months of 2015
India’s thermal coal imports grew by
27.7% y/y. Meanwhile, Indian
metallurgical coal imports grew by
17.3% during the first eight months of
2015.
Growth to ramp up: India – coal mine production (million t) and growth y/y (%).
Source: EIA, BMI.
Port bottlenecks to cause
a problem
Indian steelmakers will struggle to
operate at full capacity due to coal
supply constraints. The rush to secure
more seaborne coal in India will
continue to cause heavy congestion at
one of the country’s busiest ports,
which now has twice the number of
vessels waiting than its available
berths. The Paradip port in Odisha is
buckling under the weight of heavy
traffic, with many ships reportedly
taking up to six days to offload their
goods once berthed. According to the
Indian Ports Association, Paradip port
shipments rose 20.2% y/y in 2014 –
with the port handling 16% more coal
during the same period.
Port throughput to grow: Port of Paradip throughput ('000 t) and growth y/y (%).
Source: IPA, BMI.
Coal to remain dominant
source for electricity
generation
BMI expects coal to retain its primacy
in India over the coming years as
energy poverty remains a key concern.
The fuel will remain the only realistic
option for providing cheap and
abundant energy for the local
population over the BMI forecast
period to 2024. The country’s heavy
reliance and strong appetite for
coal-fired power generation is in
contrast to the other major power
markets around the world. Coal has
been a diminishing fuel in the US and
EU power sectors over the last five
years, driven by a combination of
18 | World Coal | January 2016
Coal to dominate: India electricity generation by type (2015 – 2024).
Source: EIA, BMI.
policy implementation and changing
pricing dynamics – particularly in the
US where cheaper natural gas has
undermined coal’s competitiveness.1
Conversely, pricing and policy
dynamics often favour the use of coal
in Asian countries.
BMI forecast the share of coal in
India’s overall electricity mix to
remain steady over the coming years
as the majority of its natural gas
reserves are deemed uneconomical
given the current extraction costs.
Coal generation will account for
66.5% of total energy generation
during 2016 – 2024, slightly lower
than the average of 67.8% over
2006 – 2015. Coal consumption in
India will continue to grow in
absolute terms and the country will
see increased coal demand on the
seaborne market.
Power sector to face
challenges
Investment in India’s power grid
infrastructure will need to increase if
Prime Minister Modi’s ambitious
power plans are to be realised. Some
W E
progress has been made, but the
transmission and distribution network
remains highly inefficient, posing a
significant risk to the expansion of the
power and renewables sector in India.
BMI has long-highlighted the shortfalls
in India’s grid infrastructure, notably
the high transmission and distribution
losses, restricted network coverage
and the widespread lack of investment
into the sector. These factors have
meant that the grid infrastructure has
not kept pace with the growth in
electricity generation capacity.2
Miners to increasingly
look abroad
Despite reforms to domestic coal
production, projects in southern Africa
are expected to continue to receive
interest from Indian companies
seeking to plug its domestic shortfall
in coal production. The portfolio of
coal reserves in South Africa has
attracted an increasing number of
Indian companies, looking to establish
a foothold in the country’s mining
sector. South Africa has been cited by
Indian mining and industrial
C O N V E Y
companies as the obvious supplier,
since Indonesia’s coal is of poor
quality and extraction costs in
Australia are high. Jindal and
Atha Group have already invested in
South African coal, while companies,
including Dalmia Cement, are
considering entering the sector.
Besides South Africa, Mozambique is
gaining interest. For instance, in July
2014, Rio Tinto sold the firm’s coal
assets to Indian firm, International
Coal Ventures. International Coal
Ventures joins India’s state mining
company, Coal India, and Jindal,
another major Indian iron and steel
concern, in taking control of some of
Mozambique’s largest coal mines. The
Jindal mining concession covers an
area of 17 600 ha. and, by the time the
mine is in full production, the
company’s total investment will have
reached US$10 billion.
References
1.
2.
‘Coal Power: No Escape From
Irreversible Decline,’ 26 May 2015 (BMI
Research).
‘Modi's Power Plans One Year On,’
7 May 2015 (BMI Research).
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The Clean Power Plan hit a US coal industry already struggling with other regulatory
challenges and competition from natural gas. But despite the industry's current
woes, it's not going away anytime soon, as Andrew Moore, Platts, USA, reports.
THE EVOLVING
FACE OF
COAL
Aerial view of The White House, Wahington DC, USA.
20 | World Coal | January 2016
T
he US Environmental Protection Agencyʼs (EPA) Clean Power
Plan (CPP) could not have come at a worse time for a US coal
industry already looking vulnerable in the face of low natural
gas prices and other regulatory challenges. While it is too early
to say what the impact of the CPP will be – and whether it will
withstand legal challenges – the long-term outlook looks fairly bleak for
coal. Still, it looks set to remain a major energy source for the US and the
world for decades to come.
January 2016 | World Coal | 21
Last July, Minnesota Power said it
would idle and eventually close its
coal-fired Taconite Harbor power
plant on the shore of Lake Superior.
It followed up the announcement
in September with an integrated
resource plan filed with the state of
Minnesota, noting the closure
would be accompanied by plans to
increase natural gas generation and
add renewable power – all of
which would help the utility “to
position itself for compliance with”
the CPP.
At 150 MW, the relatively small
plant burned only 684 000 short t of
coal in 2014 – a drop in the ocean
compared with the
999.7 million short t of coal mined in
the US last year. But it was enough to
catch the attention of Peabody Energy,
the largest US coal producer, which
cited the closure in an August filing
with the US Court of Appeals for the
District of Columbia in support of an
emergency stay petition brought
against the EPA by 15 states opposing
the CPP.
“EPA tries to brush off the Taconite
shutdown as ‘likely part of the
general shift away from coal,’ but the
unrebutted evidence is that the [CPP]
was a precipitating factor,” said the
Peabody filing. “Indeed, a sector
already weakened by market forces
and pre-existing environmental
regulations is even more vulnerable to
draconian regulatory measures like
the [CPP].”
Vulnerable seems an apt
description for the US coal industry.
While it is too early to tell what
impact the CPP might have, it could
not have come at a worst time. Low
natural gas prices have made coal
uneconomical to burn in many parts
of the country. Meanwhile, in markets
where coal can compete, producers
are often pitted against each other.
The outlook could look even
gloomier if utilities begin to view
carbon dioxide as a risk regardless of
what happens with the CPP.
“Generally speaking, utilities are
obviously looking at the CPP, and you
know, there is some pretty clear
handwriting on the wall here, and
some are starting to take some
22 | World Coal | January 2016
action,” said one utility official who
did not want to be identified.
What seems clear is the US coal
industry faces an uncertain future,
though by no means is it going away.
US coal production
In 2008, US coal production peaked at
1172 million short t, with roughly 94%
consumed by industry and the electric
power sector, where coal‑fired
generation made up 48.2% of the US
power market.
That same year, prices reached an
all-time high for the physical coal
underlying the two Central Appalachia
futures contracts: the 12 500 Btu/lb
CAPP rail (CSX) contract, which hit
US$160.60/short t, and the
12 000 Btu/lb CAPP barge contract,
which hit US$143.25/short t.
Seven years later, it is a much
different picture. According to the US
Energy Information Administration
(EIA), US coal production is estimated
to total 914 million short t in 2015 – a
22% drop from the recent peak and
the lowest annual total since 1986.
Coal generation is expected to
make up 35% of the US power market
in 2015, with the most share lost to
natural gas, which made up 21.4% of
US generation in 2008 but is expected
to make up 31.6% in 2015.
And prices for the physical coal
underlying two of the three major coal
futures contracts are at multi‑year
lows: in early October, the CAPP rail
contract fell to US$35.40/short t, a
78% drop from its 2008 peak, while
the CAPP barge contract dropped to
US$40.75/short t, down 72% from its
2008 peak.
All this has happened before the
CPP has been made official and
despite it facing an uncertain future.
Already, 26 states and a number of
industry groups have filed legal
challenges to the plan, which would
take effect in 2022.
Clean Power Plan impact
But the EPA’s projections do not bode
well for the coal industry. According
to the agency’s regulatory impact
analysis for the plan, US thermal coal
production could drop to
729 million short t by 2025 in its base
case review. The figure could drop as
low as 606 million short t under a
more stringent scenario.
“The [CPP] turned out to be worse
than we thought it would be,” said
Paul Bailey, Senior Vice President for
policy and affairs at the American
Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity.
“Coal is down a lot, and the EPA likes
to claim that’s because of natural gas
prices, and some is due to that, but a
great deal of it from the analysis
we’ve done is due to EPA
regulations.”
In 2008, the net summer capacity of
US coal-fired generation totalled
roughly 313 GW, according to the
EIA. As of October, Platts-unit
Bentek Energy estimated net summer
capacity for US coal-fired generation
at roughly 300 GW, with another
24 GW of announced retirements by
2025.
Bailey and much of the industry
attribute the recent closures to the
EPA’s Mercury and Air Toxics
Standards Rule, which mandated
certain emissions controls be installed
by April 2015. Even though the
Supreme Court remanded the rule in
June, utilities had already made the
decision to close roughly 13 GW of
coal-fired generation that was not
economical to retrofit.
With the CPP, Bailey believes
utilities could possibly shutter
40 – 50 GW of coal-fired generation,
resulting in the closure of roughly a
quarter of the US coal fleet compared
with 2008.
“I think it’s a little premature to
say how it will really impact the
industry, and whether it will be
actually implemented,” said
Betsy Monseu, the CEO of the
American Coal Council. “We know
there is opposition to it far beyond
just coal; there are utilities
concerned states concerned […] and
there is going to be a great deal of
push back.”
Coal is not going away
Regardless of the outcome, Monseu
rightly points out that coal generation
is not going away. The surviving
plants will likely run at higher
capacity factors, “but I don’t believe
we’ll resign to a smaller market,” she
said.
“We’re existing in a smaller market
because of regulation in large part,
and changes in energy markets, and
we’re adapting to that,” Monseu said.
“You’re seeing lots of restructuring on
the coal side and with efforts to
improve balance sheets and
restructure as a leaner, more efficient,
segment for the future.”
Robert Moore, President and CEO
of Foresight Energy LP, a major
producer of Illinois Basin coal, wrote
in response to emailed questions from
Platts that he believes the US thermal
coal market might drop to
600 – 650 million short tpy if the CPP
is implemented.
“It is too early to tell what the
coming restructuring of the coal
industry will do to overall production
levels in each region, but it is evident
that the CPP encourages using higher
Btu thermal coal from the Illinois
Basin,” wrote Moore. “The
8400 Btu/lb and lower production in
the Powder River Basin will likely be
negatively impacted.”
In the base case review of the EPA’s
regulatory impact analysis for the
CPP, the agency projects coal
production from the US’s Interior
region, which includes the Illinois
Basin, would total 250 million short t
in 2025. In 2014, Interior production
totalled 188.7 million short t.
And in the Powder River Basin, the
nation’s largest coal-producing
region, the EPA forecasts 2025
production to total 379 million short t
– down from 430.4 million short t in
2014.
Without the CPP, Moore noted that
US coal production will likely remain
robust, referring to the EIA’s most
recent long-term projections.
In its 2015 Annual Energy Outlook
issued earlier this year, the EIA
forecast in its base case review that
US coal production would total
1105 million short t in 2025 and
1118 million short t by 2030, though it
did not include the CPP in its
modelling.
The EIA’s forecast points to the fact
that coal-fired generation historically
has been an inexpensive baseload
24 | World Coal | January 2016
power source and will likely remain
so in the future, especially as natural
gas prices are forecast to increase due
to greater industrial and power
demand as well as increasing LNG
exports.
In 2008, when coal production
peaked, the average price for
the NYMEX Henry Hub natural
gas futures contract was
US$8.891/million Btu. As of
15 October, the 2015 contract price
averaged US$2.744/million Btu, and
the average price for the 2020
contract was US$3.224/million Btu.
In the base case review in its annual
forecast, the EIA put spot natural gas
price at US$4.88/million Btu by 2020
and US$7.85/million Btu by 2040, in
2013 dollars.
Technology solutions
needed
Even if states and utilities work to
eliminate carbon emissions, coal
remains integral to the reliability of
the power grid.
Minnesota Power made headlines
with its plan to close Taconite Harbor,
but the utility will still have more
than 11 GW of net summer coal-fired
generation capacity in its fleet by
2020, according to its recent
integrated resource plan.
“Even though gas prices are still
low, coal is still very economical in
many places,” said Joe Nipper, Senior
Vice President of Regulatory Affairs
and Communications for the
American Public Power Association.
“It’s available to run. Some are not
running because of gas prices, but it is
available. So we have lots more
capacity to generate electricity from
coal-fired plants, but utilities are often
choosing to generate or dispatch from
other sources, but may be keeping
coal capacity maintained and up to
date, and running those units some of
the time.”
There is also the possibility that
commercial-scale carbon capture
could become economically viable,
enabling coal-fired power plants to
reduce their carbon emissions. At the
moment, however, carbon capture is
generally confined to areas of the
country that contain oil fields. The
captured CO2 is pumped into existing
oil wells to help increase production,
a process known as enhanced oil
recovery (EOR). But the costs of
capturing and transporting the CO2
are high.
Further down the road, the coal
industry faces a daunting reality. The
last US coal plant entered service in
2012 and, while there are several coal
plants in various stages of planning,
only one is under construction:
Southern Co.’s Kemper plant in
Mississippi, which gasifies
locally‑mined lignite to fire an
integrated gasification
combined‑cycle power plant.
Despite the addition of carbon
capture technology, the plant is likely
to serve more as a warning than a
sign of progress, as it is more than
US$4.7 billion over its initial
US$2.2 billion budget.
Furthermore, in 2014 the EPA
issued stringent carbon emissions
guidelines for new power plants that
essentially rule out the construction of
any new coal-fired plants, given that
coal would be physically unable to
come under the emissions limits.
That means that by 2040, most of
the plants in the existing US coal‑fired
fleet will have reached the end of their
useful lives of 70‑plus yr. While plants
can be maintained and their lives
extended, costs go up, while
efficiencies go down, making it a less
attractive option.
Exports also remain an option, but
not in the current environment. A
global oversupply of coal has pushed
down prices worldwide, and new
demand from Asia is not likely to
materialise for several years.
“Looking at this strategically, and
for the longer term, one thing that is
very important is technology and
continuing to advance [carbon
capture] and support for that at the
federal level,” said the American Coal
Council’s Monseu. “There is a
recognition that coal is going to be
a major fuel source for the US and the
world for decades and, if that’s the
case, then if there are goals for
emissions reductions, there needs to
be commitment to technological
solutions to making that happen.”
Naj Aziz, Jan Nemcik and Ali Mirzaghorbanali, University of Wollongong,
Australia, discuss shear strength properties of cable bolts.
C
able bolt usage in
Australian coal mines is
on the increase, because it
is mostly used as a
secondary support to supplement the
primary support system for strata
reinforcement. Several factors have
contributed to the increase in cable bolt
usage in mines. The most prominent of
these are a better understanding of the
principals of rock mechanics and strata
control, as well as better management of
difficult ground conditions. As a
consequence, the reliance on short
encapsulation pull testing (SEPT) of
cable bolts cannot be considered by
itself as an adequate means of providing
realistic answers to the credibility of
installation in given ground conditions.
The unwinding/unscrewing of the
cable bolts from their anchorage
medium, as well as shear behaviour
across the stratified formation, both
represent important challenges that
must be addressed. A number of papers
have been reported on studies
examining the load transfer and
unscrewing characteristics of cable bolts
and there have been significant
variations in the design to include both
plain and indented cable bolts of
different sizes and combinations.1,2,3
The increased variations in cable bolt
configurations and designs have also
generated deep interest in shear failure
of tendons. In-situ studies in cable bolt
shear are difficult to conduct, but can be
carried out in laboratory-simulated
conditions. Goris et al. carried out shear
testing of cable bolts using pairs of
0.025 m3 concrete blocks made from fine
sand-concrete mix, with an average
28 days compressive strength of
69 MPa.4 The concrete mixture was
poured into steel moulds that contained
January 2016 | World Coal | 25
Figure 1a. Hilti 19 wire HTT-UXG
indented strand cable bolt.
Figure 1b. Hilti 19 wire HTT-IXG plain
strand cable bolt.
aluminium‑cast joint surface prints. The
tested cable was installed across two
concrete blocks with the desired shear
surface roughness produced as off
prints of aluminium joint surface
moulds. The study reported that a cable
bolt placed across a joint more than
doubled shear resistance of shear blocks
with both smooth and rough joints.
Testing of the cable bolt in shear
using the double embedment assembly,
as recommended by the British
Standard (BS 7861-2:2009),5 is an
unrealistic approach. Guillotining of the
cable tendon, leading to true shearing
of the metal elements is not what occurs
when a cable bolt is sheared across a
rock joint. In reality, past laboratory
experiences have shown that the failure
of the cable bolt in rock or composite
material is a combination of both tensile
and shear failure, manifested with
crushing of the rock or concrete
surrounding the zone of the sheared
plains.6,7 These findings were also
demonstrated by numerical simulations
in both rock bolts.8 Accordingly, the
application of the double shear system
for testing cable and rock bolts in
concrete moulds is the subject of this
paper.
Cable bolt description
Figure 1c. 19-strand seal construction
wire rope.
The tested cable bolts were Hilti 19 wire
HTT-UXG plain strand and Hilti 19
wire HTT-IXG spirally indented strand,
which only has indentation on the
surface of the outer strands. Both cable
bolts were of sealed wire construction
type, consisting of an outer 5.5 mm dia.
strand layer, overlying the middle
3 mm dia. wire strands. Both layers are
wrapped around a single sold
7 mm dia. strand wire core, generally
Table 1. Specification of Hilti cable bolts
Performance data
Hilti HTT-UXG (plain strand)
Hilti HTT-IXG (indented strand)
Ultimate yield load
495 kN (50 t)
425 kN (43 t)
Ultimate failure load
573 kN (58t)
510 kN (52 t)
Bolt diameter
21.8 mm
21.8 mm
mm2
277 mm2
Cross-sectional area
312.9
Mass
2.482 kg/m
2.2 kg/m
Outer strand diameter
5.5 mm
5.5 mm
Inner lay strand diameter
3.0 mm
3.0 mm
Core strand diameter
7.0 mm
7.0 mm
Hole dia./collar reaming size
28 mm/55 mm
28 mm/55 mm
26 | World Coal | January 2016
known as king wire of cable strand
construction. Both Hilti spiral (Figure
1a) and plain (Figure 1b) cable-bolts
consisted of 19 strands (9 x 9 x 1) of seal
construction wire rope (Figure 1c). The
cables were both 22 mm dia. with the
rope thread profiles being “Left Hand
Lang’s Lay” construction type. The lay
length of the strands in both cables was
300 mm. Details of both cables
specifications are shown in Table 1.
Concrete samples
preparation and cable bolt
installation
Concrete block casting
Figure 2 shows a general layout of an
assembled double shear apparatus with
installed cable bolt. Each double shear
testing process required three
cement/mortar concrete blocks with
two outer 300 mm side cubes and a
central rectangular block 450 mm long.
The casting of the concrete blocks for
the test was carried out in the steel
frame of the double shear apparatus.
Once mixed, the cement mortar was
poured into each section of the 20 mm
thick steel frame. A plastic conduit with
a 20 mm dia. was set through the centre
of the mould, lengthways, to create a
hole for cable installation in the
concrete blocks. Once the concrete was
set, the plastic conduit was removed
from the centre of the blocks. The centre
hole was subsequently reamed to a
27/28 mm dia. rifle‑shaped hole, using
twin wing drill bits. The UCS value of
the concrete used in this study was
40 MPa, determined from testing the
representative 100 mm dia. cylindrical
concrete samples. Lately, the holes are
cast rifled instead of being drilled for
rifling.
Cable bolt installation in
concrete blocks
The installation of the cable bolt in a
three-piece concrete mould was carried
out using Orica (formerly Minova)
FB400 cable bolt grout. The cable bolt
was inserted into the central hole of the
assembled concrete blocks. A 60 t load
cell was then mounted on one side of
the protruding cable bolt using a barrel
and wedge assembly. This was
followed by the addition of the grout
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Figure 2. A schematic layout of the cable installation assembled in concrete blocks.
Figure 3. Double shearing apparatus loaded in 500 t Avery compression testing
machine.
Figure 4. Shear load and axial load vs vertical travel of the central block of the loaded
double shear apparatus.
28 | World Coal | January 2016
injection sleeve/and bolt tensioner
assembled on the other side of the
assembled double shear box. It was
held in place using another barrel and
wedge. The cable bolt was
pre‑tensioned to an axial load of 50 kN
by a torque wrench before grouting.
Grouting of the cable bolt in concrete
was achieved by pumping FB400 grout
into the hole containing the cable bolt
using grouting sleeve, and in
accordance with the established process
of grouting. Quad seals were used to
seal around the cable in the load cell
side of the concrete block in order to
protect the load cell from being
contaminated by the grout. Special
grout seals were used to minimise grout
outflow during pressure injection of the
grout. Air was allowed to escape from
one end of the assembled cable bolt
system and along the free cable strand
end as grout was pushed through the
hole length.
Testing procedure
The assembled double shear box
apparatus was then placed on a
carrier base frame, consisting of a
parallel pair of rail track sections
welded to a 35 mm thick steel plate.
The whole assembly was mounted
between the 600 x 600 mm loading
plates of the 500 t compression testing
machine as shown in Figure 3. The
outer 300 mm side concrete cubes
were seated on 75 mm high steel
blocks, leaving the central 450 mm
long block free to move vertically
down during the shearing process.
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Figure 5. (left) failed indented strand cable bolt and (right) concrete deformation
around sheared section of the bolt.
Figure 6. Shear load and axial load vs vertical travel of the central block of the loaded
double shear apparatus.
vertical travel of the central block
reached approximately 52 mm. The
maximum axial load developed at the
cable bolt was 254 kN.
Various shear load drops that
occurred beyond the vertical
displacement of 52 mm were due to
individual cable strand failures (strand
snap). The relatively larger shear load
drop, post the 904 kN maximum load,
was likely due to larger (5.5 mm dia.)
outer strands, as well as the central core
strand failures (7 mm dia.), while small
drops are indicative of the small 3 mm
dia. strand failure. It is interesting to
note that outer strand failures are also
marked by drops in the axial pretension
load on the cable bolt, as monitored by
the 60 t load cell. The number of visible
sudden drops on the load displacement
graph appears to be slightly less than the
total number of the 19 failed strands.
This is clearly evident from Figure 5
(left) of the failed/snapped cable section
as retrieved from dismantled blocks.
Characteristically, the snapped cable
strand ends depict strand failures, as a
combination of tensile and shear failures,
which would occur when the cable is
sheared in a rock mass. This kind of
failure is the result of bending of the
cable in the vicinity of the sheared plains
where the concrete has crushed for a
length of up to around 60 mm from the
sheared joint plains (Figure 5 right).
The loading changes A and B,
shown in Figure 4, are attributed
possibly to wedge and barrel
settlement/adjustment during the early
start of cable bolt loading, as the cable
bolt begins to take extra axial load due to
the central/lateral shear loading.
Plain strand cable
Figure 7. Post test plain strand cable. No strand failure.
The rate of shearing of the
double shear apparatus for the
middle section was maintained
constant at 1 mm/min. for the
75 mm of vertical displacement.
The rate of loading and
displacement was monitored and
simultaneously displayed visually on
a PC monitor.
30 | World Coal | January 2016
Results and analysis
Indented cable bolt
Figure 4 shows the applied shear load
and axial load in the cable vs the vertical
displacement of the central block of the
double shear apparatus with indented
cable bolt. The maximum vertical load
was 904 kN, which occurred when the
Figure 6 shows the load/displacement
profiles of the second test carried out on
22 mm dia. Hilti 19 plain strand cable.
The plain cable bolt reached a maximum
shear load of 1024 kN for the vertical
displacement of 75 mm. The maximum
generated axial load on the bolt was
400 kN. Similar to the indented strand
cable, there was a typical barrel and
wedge adjustment axial load drop
during the early part of the cable
shearing process. This settlement
occurred at 502 kN of vertical shear load
and at the vertical shear displacement of
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and cup) and a combination of
tensile and shear.
nn The use of the laboratory based
double embedment assembly for
shear test as recommended by
BS 7961-2 2009 is not a realistic way
of evaluating the shear strength of
cable bolts in situ.
nn No cable rotation was detected in
double shear testing of either plain
or indented cable bolts.
Acknowledgements
Figure 8. Tensile load/elongation profiles of both plain and indent 5.5 mm strands of
cable bolts.
25 mm. No strand failure was detected
during the shearing process as evident
from the post-test dismantled cable bolt
(Figure 7).
The maximum applied shear load on
the UX-Strand (plain) cable of 1024 kN
for vertical shear displacement of
72.5 mm was 13.8% greater than the
maximum shear load of 904 kN achieved
from the IX strand (indented) cable. As
can be seen in Table 1, the ultimate failure
load of the UX-strand cable bolt of
495 kN is 70 kN more than the tensile
strength of the IX-Strand cable bolt,
which is an increase in the ultimate
strength of 16.5% in favour of the plain
strand cable bolt. The reduction of 70 kN
in the ultimate tensile strength of the
indented cable bolt may explain the
reason why the cable failed at much
lower shearing load. This reduction in the
indented cable strength was subsequently
verified by tensile strength testing of
cable’s individual strands, which resulted
in a drop in tensile strength of the
indented strand by 10.0%. Figure 8 shows
typical profiles of load elongation of both
5.5 mm plain and indent strands of cable
bolts. The machining of the outer strands
to create indentation may have a
detrimental bearing on the strand
strength, contributing to the reduced
tensile and shear strength of the cable
bolt. Therefore, it is fair to conclude that
the strand manipulation for producing
indentation may have affected the
ultimate tensile strength of the intended
cable bolt, as the overall cross sectional
area of the indented cable bolt was
32 | World Coal | January 2016
reduced 13%. Finally, no cable rotation
was observed in either the plain or
indented strand cable bolt during the
double shearing tests.
Special thanks to Alan Grant, Cole Devonshire
and Cameron Nielson of the School of Civil,
Mining and environmental Engineering,
University of Wollongong for their technical
support during preparation and testing stages
of this study.
References
1.
Future tests
Future tests will involve testing for cable
shear strength only and without the
shear forces of the concrete joint surfaces
friction, thus enabling a realistic
estimation of the shear strength of the
cable bolt alone.
2.
3.
Conclusions
In light of such analysis, a number of
conclusions may be drawn:
nn The shearing strength of the cable
bolt is influenced by the outer
strand indentation, with a reduction
in shearing strength to around
13.8%. The tensile strength failure
of the individual strand resulted in
a strength reduction of 12.8%. Thus,
indentation of the cable bolt’s outer
strand weakens the cable bolts
tensile and shearing strength.
nn All strands of the indented cable
bolt failed post peak shear load.
No strand failures were observed
in the plain strand cable bolt tested
in shear. No strand failures were
observed in the plain strand of
the cable bolt tested in shear for
the range of vertical displacement
undertaken.
nn All strands of the IX-strand cable
failed in a mixture of pure shear
(central core), pure tension (cone
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
CLIFFORD, B., KENT, L., ALTOUNJAN,
P. and BIGBY, D., ‘Systems used in Coal
Mining Development in Long Tendon
Reinforcement’, Proceedings of the 20th
International Conference on Ground Control
in Mining (Morgantown, West Virginia;
2001), pp. 235 – 241.
TADOLINI, C.S., TINSLY, J. and
MCDONNELL, J.P., ‘The Next Generation
of Cable Bolts for Improved Ground
Control’, Proceedings 31st International
Conference on Ground Control in Mining
(Morgantown, West Virginia; 2012).
THOMAS, R., ‘The Load Transfer
Properties of Post Groutable Cable Bolts
used in the Australian Coal Industry’,
Proceedings 31st International Conference on
Ground Control in Mining (Morgantown,
West Virginia; 2012).
GORIS, J.H., MARTIN, L.A. and CURTIN,
R.P., ‘Shear Behaviour of Cable Bolt
Supports in Horizontal, Bedded Deposits’,
Proceedings of the 15th International
Conference on Ground Control in Mining
(Morgantown, West Virginia; 1996),
pp. 511 – 521.
British Standard BS 7861-2 (2009):
Strata reinforcement support system
components in coal mines Part 2.
Specification for flexible systems for roof
reinforcement.
CRAIG, P. and AZIZ, N., ‘Shear Testing
of 28 mm Hollow Strand ʼTg’ Cable Bolt’,
Proceedings of the 10th Underground Coal
operators Conference, (Wollongong; 2010),
pp. 171 – 179.
CRAIG, P. and AZIZ, N., ‘Shear Testing
of 28 mm Hollow Strand ‘Tgʼ Cable Bolt’,
Proceedings 29th International Conference on
Ground Control in Mining (Morgantown,
West Virginia; 2010), pp. 169 – 174.
JALALIFAR, H., AZIZ, N. and HADI, M.,
‘The Effect of Surface Profile, Rock
Strength and Pretension Load on Bending
Behaviour of Fully Grouted Bolts’, Journal
of Geotechnical and Geological Engineering 24
(2006), pp. 1203 – 1227.
A PATH TO
DEVELOPMENT
Brian Thompson, Joy Global, explains how the company’s fleet of miner
bolters has helped mines to overcome bottlenecks and improve reliability.
T
he critical path for most longwall installations is
gateroad development. In both single- and
multi-entry gateroad development, when the roof is
weak and early and dense installation of roof bolts
is required, roof support becomes the primary bottleneck and
the longest cycle time event. At the same time, today’s
economic conditions require operators to watch costs without
impacting productivity and safety.
The solution that everyone has been driving towards is a
true simultaneous cut-and-bolt machine for gateroad
development. The machine required is one that can bolt close
to the face and ideally handle dense bolting patterns for both
the roof and ribs, as well as maintaining a high reliability,
while continuing to meet the roadway development
requirements.
Joy Global has a long history of providing solutions to
meet mining’s toughest challenges. Today’s fleet of entry
development machines (miner bolters) has evolved through
years of partnering with mines to address bottlenecks and
improve reliability. This new generation of machines
incorporates the latest developments and technology from
Joy Global, and offers simultaneous cut-and-bolt capabilities.
Entry development solutions
Joy miner bolters are designed for safety, with roof and rib
bolters optionally equipped with dust collection capabilities.
January 2016 | World Coal | 33
Optional temporary roof supports
(TRS) and canopy structures offer
operators additional protection when
warranted by conditions or required
by regulation. They are also designed
for productivity, with hydraulic cutter
head extensions that retract to enable
easy withdrawals, as well as greater
flexibility in cutting corners.
The Joy 12CM30 miner bolter offers
a range of features and configurations
to service mid- to high-seam mines
with proven high-performance cutting
and bolting technologies. It is a
single-pass machine designed for
roadway cutting widths of 4.8 – 5.4 m.
The 12CM30 miner bolter has a wide
install base in longwall entry
development applications in Australia,
with an increasing presence in the
Eurasian market. Over 15 yr of
continuous improvements and
developments are incorporated into
the latest models.
The ED25 range of miner bolters
was conceived in 2005 when
Joy Global launched a project to
produce the next generation of
simultaneous cut-and-bolt machines
for longwall entry development. The
model range consists of two products
for varying applications: the 14ED25
miner bolter for lower seam heights
– typical in the US – and the 12ED25
miner bolter for higher seam
applications in Australia and other
countries. Both models share a
significant number of components.
Joy’s newest addition to the entry
development fleet is the 12ED30. This
is a true simultaneous cut-and-bolt
machine developed for the entry
development markets of China,
Eurasia, Russia and India. The
12ED30’s shield design and
forward-tilt roof bolters combine to
provide the closest to face bolting
capability of any sumping-frame
entry driver currently on the market.
The 12ED30 features 340 kW total
cutting power and a total machine
power of 650 kW. The newly
designed, heavy-duty sliding frame
provides a significant increase in
service life compared to the first
rebuild.
All the machines share the Faceboss
control platform, which can maximise
productivity in a variety of ways.
Automated sequences generate
consistency in machine operation and
results in the face of changing
operators and changing conditions.
The Faceboss control platform includes
an onboard graphical display that
includes a log of events, messages and
alarms. All key machine operating
parameters are continuously
monitored and recorded during
machine operation and can be sent to
the surface for analysis through
Joy Global’s integrated JoySmart
Solutions. This offering builds on the
company’s direct service model, which
offers customers the chance to partner
directly with the company to improve
performance. Included in this direct
service model is access to the
company’s worldwide parts and
support network.
Joy's 12ED25 model used at the Grosvenor mine in Australia.
34 | World Coal | January 2016
Joy Global also works with
customers to understand the support
needs and develop solutions that allow
for the fastest installation of the
prescribed bolt (single pass drilling
and bolting) with the ability to install
in a wide range of placements (both
roof and rib) to suit all mine plans.
Delivering results
Specifically designed for higher seam
applications, the 12ED25 model has
achieved noteworthy results at
Anglo American’s Grosvenor mine in
Australia’s Bowen Basin.
Anglo American needed an entry
driver at Grosvenor that could deliver
the same high productivity of the Joy
continuous cut-and-bolt machines in
the US, while also meeting the
challenges of the greater roof support
density requirements in Australia and
without compromising safety and
productivity.
In introducing the machine to the
mine, the Joy Global team was faced
with the challenge of meeting the
company’s aggressive production
ramp up requirements. The
introduction of the longwall gateroad
entry driver machines at the mine,
therefore, needed to be flawless.
“With the Grosvenor mine being a
major new project for Anglo and,
facing the head winds of a tough coal
market, we have high expectations on
Joy Global’s entry development
equipment,” said Glen Britton, Head
of Underground Operations for
Anglo American Coal.
The operating platform of the
Australian entry driver was derived
from Joy Global’s successful 14ED25
and 12ED25 continuous cutting and
roof support product platforms, which
were developed for the US market.
The 12ED25 bolter miner design
encompasses new levels of
automation, including the ability to
operate in auto cut, auto sump and
loading mode capability. The auto-cut
system, which is in the final stages of
refinement, also includes the system
intelligence to make horizon
corrections, while maintaining smooth
floor profiles. These features,
combined with high-powered twin
274 kW cutter motors, provide a highly
Connecting Global Competence
productive, repeatable and accurate method of mining
capability.
The design also focused on the roof support and
consumables materials handling system. The roof and rib
bolters come with a high degree of automation, operated
via microprocessor control technology, minimising the
need for operator intervention throughout the roof
support installation process.
The system has the intelligence to both drill and install
roof supports at maximum rig feed and drill rotation
performance levels, while taking into account variations
in strata hardness and geotechnical conditions.
The roof support system includes a user-friendly
operator interface that caters to varying lengths of roof
and rib bolts, fibreglass rib dowels, spin-to-stall resin
applications and a range of mega bolt specifications.
The product design team prioritised increasing safety,
productivity, reliability and minimising life cycle cost.
The development team focused on the hydraulic
design, including the application of hard piping, and this
resulted in a 26% reduction in hydraulic hoses. The team
also incorporated a single centralised hydraulic control
manifold for ease of maintenance at the rear of the
machine.
A team of operators were selected to trial the 12ED25s
at Anglo’s Moranbah North mine, testing its capabilities
before introduction at the Grosvenor mine. They were
supported by Joy Global’s JoySmart Solutions team,
which provided on-the-job training, onsite technical
support and round-the-clock reviews of performance
diagnostics.
“While there is always resistance to new technologies,
I was very impressed with how well the operators
adapted to using the electro-hydraulic push buttons
rather than levers and how quickly they embraced the
use of automation,” said Jordan Taylor, Moranbah Mine
Superintendent. “By relying on automation, we were
confident that every bolt was consistently installed to the
same standard. Within a short period of time, the 12ED25
was setting and breaking its own production records on a
weekly basis.”
The crews set records for the 12ED25, including the
best shift production of 42 m advance and the best day’s
production of 78 m advance.
Following the successful trial at Moranbah North, two
12ED25s were introduced at the Grosvenor mine in
March 2015. The same production crews were used,
allowing the mine to ramp up to full production within
the first ten days of operation.
Within a short period of operation at the Grosvenor
mine, the 12ED25 eclipsed the performance records set at
Moranbah, achieving 53 m advance in a single shift at a
rate of 6.5 m per operating hour.
“We are very pleased with the 12ED25s,” Britton said,
“both from a mining productivity performance and a
machine reliability perspective. The 12ED25 has shown,
in a relatively short time frame, it has the potential to
outperform the current generation of bolter miners.”
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Bernhard Schust, Voith Turbo GmbH & Co. KG,
Germany, outlines how fluid couplings can help
to ensure smooth conveyor operation.
Keeping things running
smoothly
A mine of DaTong Coal Mining Group will use four
TPKL fluid couplings in a new belt conveyor.
36 | World Coal | January 2016
I
ncreased mining outputs, longer conveying distances, higher power
requirements and greater demands for operational reliability present
constantly increasing challenges for belt conveyor drive systems. A mine
is only productive as long as things keep moving. Particularly in
underground mining, it is critical that every system component is rugged
and reliable. As they are very robust, easy to handle and insensitive to harsh
environments, fluid couplings are a very common drive component. Proven
over decades, the technology gains more and more importance today due to
its versatility and its particular adaptability for individual operating
conditions.
Wear-free power transmission
Fluid couplings transmit power via a fluid flow. Two bladed wheels inside
the coupling face each other. The pump wheel is connected to the motor and
the turbine wheel is connected to the driven machine. The operating fluid
flows between the two wheels. As there is no mechanical connection, power
transmission is wear-free. The more operating medium is in the working
chamber, the higher the power transmission. The operating fluid also
absorbs vibrations and shocks in the driveline and thus protects all system
components from damage. All these characteristics make fluid couplings a
reliable drive component with little downtime and long service intervals.
January 2016 | World Coal | 37
Fluid couplings for belt
conveyors
Figure 1. The TPKL fluid coupling is ideally suited for use in belt conveyor drives
with challenging workloads.
Figure 2. Start-up of a Mozambican coal mine.
38 | World Coal | January 2016
Voith recently manufactured its 1000th TPKL
fluid coupling (Figure 1). The production of
the series, especially developed for mining
applications, started in 1997. It is suitable for
long conveyor types, heavy-duty, highinertia systems, with demanding start-up
conditions and complex conveyor layouts.
The coupling provides excellent torque
limitation, 120% of the nominal load and
start-up times of up to several minutes.
The pre-tensioning and start-up time
can be varied according to customer
requirements. With the Voith TurboSim
software start-up procedures can be
calculated taking into consideration
various parameters: for example, start-up
scenario, load situations and ambient
conditions, as well as interactions with
other components. Figure 2 illustrates the
pre-tensioning and soft acceleration of a
belt conveyor in a Mozambican coal mine.
The customer requested a start-up time of
190 sec. for the belt conveyor. A 250 kW
motor running at 1490 rpm and a 562
TPKL fluid coupling are used. The start-up
procedure is as follows. The motor starts
up virtually load-free as the coupling is
empty. By filling the coupling, torque is
increasing smoothly and the belt is
pre-tensioned (approximately 10 sec.).
This reduces dynamics in the belt and
avoids longitudinal vibrations. Through
filling control, the belt accelerates (yellow
curve). The TPKL fluid coupling limits the
introduced torque to 120% of the load
torque (blue curves). After 190 sec., the
belt conveyor has reached nominal
operation.
The belt pre-tensioning, as well as soft
and controlled acceleration of the belt
conveyor, avoids damages on the belt and
increases its lifetime. The TPKL comes with
an active cooling function (Figure 3), so it
can handle the most demanding start-up
procedures multiple times in succession. For
belt inspection, the coupling can be operated
with partial filling – the belt conveyor runs
at reduced speed.
The heat, which is produced by
extended start-up times or long‑term
reduced speed operation, is generated
directly in the operating medium (oil) and is
quickly dissipated by a heat exchanger that
is integrated in the coupling circuit. This
involves the operating fluid recirculating
continuously during operation in a closed
RD nS 016
DA Tio Ry 2
An RA UA
ST ST JAn
Gi 31
RE inG
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ACPS Technical
Conference
Novotel Northbeach, Wollongong 13th – 17th March, 2016
Australian Coal
Preparation Society
SCHEDULE
Technical Program
16th Conference / Wollongong
SUnDAy 13
Registration, Exhibition Opens
& Arrival Function (2pm -7pm)
monDAy 14
A Celebration of
Session 1 - Opening Ceremony
Session 2 - New Plants & Upgrades
Session 3 - Coarse Coal Processing
Evening Welcome Function
50 Years
Optimising Your Coal & Asset Resources
TUESDAy 15
Session 4 - Tailings Disposal
Session 5 - New Developments
Technical Tours
Free Evening
WEDnESDAy 16
Session 6 - Fine Coal Processing 1
Session 7 - Old and New Coal Preparation
‘Arthur Le Page Lecture‘
Session 8 - Poster Papers and Exhibition Time
Session 9 - Process Improvement & Optimisation
Conference Dinner and 50th Anniversary Ball
THURSDAy 17
Session 10 - Coal Quality
Session 11 - Closing Ceremony
Conference & Exhibition Concludes at 1pm
*Please Note: Technical program & schedule are subject to change.
Key Contacts:
Rob CASEy
JULiE-AnnE HomAn
Conference Secretariat
Ph: +61 2 99708251
conferences@acps.com.au
National Secretariat
Ph: +61 2 49264870
acpsnational@acps.com.au
www.acps.com.au/conference-2016/home
Figure 3. Active cooling of the Voith TPKL fluid coupling by an integrated heat
exchanger system.
circuit between the working chamber of
the coupling and the heat exchanger.
The operating fluid is drawn from the
working chamber by a discharge pump
with no need for additional external
energy. Optimisation of this discharge
pump ensures maximum heat
management within the coupling oil
circuit.
With multi-motor drives TPKL fluid
couplings provide active load sharing,
which protects individual motors from
overload. A sequential start-up of the
motors is possible with fluid couplings
in the drive. This avoids simultaneous
current peaks and is beneficial for the
electric grid.
The TPKL fluid couplings are very
powerful. The power transmission
capacity ranges up to 4000 kW at
1500 rpm (Figure 4). As they are also
very compact in size, easy
transportation and underground
installation is ensured. The design of
the TPKL is optimised to provide a long
life and reliable operation. This
translates into maximum availability,
long maintenance and service intervals
with little downtime. In general the
TPKL is extremely robust. It is
insensitive to tough environmental
conditions, such as dust, dirt or
40 | World Coal | January 2016
humidity. Therefore it is well suited for
use in underground mining.
Case study
DaTong Coal Mining Group Co. Ltd is
located in DaTong City, Shanxi Province,
China. It is one of the top three coal
groups in China, with a coal production
capacity of 152 million tpy. The coal
group operates a large number of coal
mines across the country.
The 1000th Voith TPKL coupling will
go to the DaTong Coal Mining Group in
China. In this specific case, a new mine
will receive four identical fluid
couplings. The fill-controlled couplings
will be used in a 6.4 MW belt conveyor
drive, driven by four 1600 kW motors.
The 3160 m (10 367 ft) long underground
belt conveyor is designed for a
challenging workload, as it will
transport coal uphill at a 14˚ angle. The
planned capacity is 4000 tph.
The decision in favour of Voith fluid
couplings for the drive line
arrangement in the main belt conveyor
was based on the group’s previous
positive experiences with the
performance of hydrodynamic power
transmission. According to the mine’s
manager of the mechanical and
electrical department, DaTong Coal
Figure 4. The TPKL fluid coupling
transmits up to 4000 kW.
Mining is very happy to use
fill-controlled couplings from Voith in
their new belt conveyors. He highlights
soft start characteristics, reliability and
aftersales service as key aspects to
guarantee safe production.
Conclusion
TPKL fluid couplings are not the only
type to be successfully used in
underground mining. Voith has been
supplying different types of fluid
coupling to underground mining
applications for over 40 yrs. For
example, in high‑power armoured face
conveyor (AFC) drives, many mines use
DTPKWL2 and CPC (chain protection
coupling) fluid couplings from Voith.
They have been specifically developed
for the tough working conditions in AFC
drives in underground mining. They are
robust and powerful but compact at the
same time. Torque limitation against
overload can be individually pre-set
according to customer needs to prevent
damage to motor, gearbox and chain.
Thanks to active cooling of the operating
fluid, CPCs can start up as many times
as necessary to break an overloaded
AFC free. Miners appreciate this feature
because they do not have to clear the
conveyor by hand. NO TYRING OUT
SUPPLIERS ROUND-UP SPECIAL
Mike Brown, Kal Tire, UK, provides an overview of the company’s True Tire Technology.
T
he global mining industry
continues to evolve and create
challenges of greater scope and
complexity. In the face of such
challenges, the industry is turning to
real-time monitoring systems, which
continuously monitor the performance of
every piece of mining equipment. Tyres
limit mine throughput and, therefore,
tyre performance is one of the last key
areas of added value available to mine
haulage operations. The opportunity to
run earthmover tyres at their optimal
performance improves safety, minimises
costs and maximises productivity.
Tyre manufacturers place a
tonnes‑kilometers-per-hour (tkm/hr)
rating on each tyre, and this represents
the maximum stress the tyre can be put
under without compromising its
integrity through excessive heat. Mine
personnel retrospectively calculate the
vehicles tkm/hr at the end of a shift; this
means that vehicles will rarely run at
safe, optimal productivity. The obvious
alternative is a real-time tyre monitoring
system, which displays the actual
temperature and pressure in a tyre.
True Tire Technology
Kal Tire’s Mining Tire Group has
released its redesigned TTT (True Tire
Technology): a tyre temperature and
pressure monitoring system that opens
up the opportunity for tyre optimisation.
This technology has been developed
over the past eleven years in conjunction
with tyre technicians and mine
managers to keep an entire fleet of
trucks operating at peak performance.
Completely wireless, it gives a range of
near real-time data proven to prolong
tyre life, increase fuel efficiency, enhance
safety and reduce operational costs. An
under-inflated tyre working under
heavy conditions can reach an
overheated state quickly. This can
severely reduce the life of the tyres and
increase the risk of disasters. Constant
monitoring helps eliminate problems
before they arise, saving mining
operations time and money.
Maintaining optimal tyre pressure
and temperature leads to several proven
factors, including:
nn Improved tyre life (tyres last longer
when run within their design
capacity).
nn Reduced tyre damage (correctly
inflated tyres are more resistant to
damage).
nn Improved fuel consumption (low
tyre pressures increase fuel burn).
nn Lower fixed costs, including
elimination of manual pressure
checks (a labour intensive necessity).
nn Improved productivity.
nn Less tyre related downtime.
January 2016 | World Coal | 41
viewable on the TTT Console and email
alerts. It includes:
nn A 7 in. LCD touch screen displaying
pressure and temperature data
in-cab.
nn Near real-time data transfer via the
mineʼs 2.4 WiFi network or via local
GPRS cellular data network.
nn Detailed GPS data uploaded to
the TTT console and stored on the
device.
nn Near real-time tyre data uploaded to
the TTT console.
nn Email alerts.
nn All alarms given to the driver.
Kal Tire's distinctive golf ball-size sensor installed in a tyre.
The most important benefit is the
improvement in safety. The remote
monitoring of tyre temperature and
pressure means that mine operators
are alerted to all temperature and
pressure hazards with tyres before
they can develop into potentially
harmful incidents. It also reduces the
time that personnel are required to
interact with large mobile equipment
to check pressures. It puts mine
operators and personnel in control of
their tyres from behind the safety of a
computer screen.
Kal Tire offers the following three
distinct TTT product lines to cater for
all markets.
TTT In-Cab
This is the new entry level model: a
stand-alone unit that uses an in-cab
42 | World Coal | January 2016
display (ICD) to inform the driver of
any issues. It includes:
TTT Network is the industry
established closed mesh network based
system, which transfers data to the
Kal Tire servers via a custom base
station. It uses the base station to present
the data and inform the local operator of
any issues, as well as having the data
viewable on the TTT console. It runs on
an independent wireless network, using
solar-powered repeater stations. This
gives a standalone solution that is
suitable for any surface mine site. A
high-range frequency is used with 26
switching channels to ensure the
connection is stable and reliable. The
system automatically connects to a free
channel if communications become
interrupted. This setup ensures that even
during internet blackouts the vehicles
are being remotely monitored constantly
and changes in a tyreʼs condition can be
acted upon swiftly. It includes:
nn An in-cab 7 in. LCD touch screen
showing pressure and temperature
data.
nn Internal data storage, downloadable
via WiFi connection.
nn Temperature and pressure data
viewable on the Kal Tire Graphing
App.
nn All alarms given to driver.
nn Near real-time data transfer via
the Kal Tire TTT 900 MHz repeater
network or the mineʼs 2.4/5 GHz
WiFi network.
nn Near real-time tyre data uploaded to
the TTT console.
nn Email alerts.
nn Remote near real-time vehicle
monitoring without the need for
internet access.
TTT Online
TTT Network is installed on many
mine sites globally. It directly monitors
the chamber temperature and pressure
of a tyre through an internally mounted
sensor. The sensor data is transmitted to
the vehicle MCM (master control
module) via a 434 MHz signal. The
This is the new internet‑based system
that transfers data to the Kal Tire servers
via a GPRS cellular network or a
2.4 GHz WiFi network. This uses an
in-cab display (ICD) to inform the driver
of any issues, as well as having the data
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MCM then converts the signal to
900 MHz and retransmits the data to
the base station located in the mineʼs
tyre bay via a network of solar-powered
repeaters installed around the mine site.
The data is monitored and analysed by
the TTT team based in the tyre bay and
is also transferred to Kal Tire’s central
server where it can be accessed through
the TTT console by registered
personnel.
Conclusion
Typical installation of Kal Tire's TTT system.
Live online monitoring provided by Kal Tire's TTT console.
About Kal Tire
Kal Tire’s Mining Tire Group is a global leader delivering best-in-class
customised solutions that ensure maximum productivity for all mining tyre
service, supply and safety needs. The company operates on more than 100
mine sites across five continents and, with more than 1500 team members
operating globally, Kal Tire has built a reputation for innovation, reliability
and outstanding service.
Having an international reach with one set of safety standards and
operating processes across all mine sites, Kal Tire gives mining customers
peace-of-mind when it comes to one of the top three expenses of a mine’s
operating budget: its tyres. For over 40 yr, the group has been operating in a
vast array of conditions and climates and are able to confidently match a
mine operation's needs to the right tyre and services.
The company’s objectives remain simple: with the constant rise in
commodity prices, miners must strive to maximise the full.
44 | World Coal | January 2016
Through the monitoring of vehicle
tyres over the years on mine sites,
Kal Tire has developed various
protocols and procedures that are used
in conjunction with the TTT system.
Trends can be spotted and acted upon
rapidly, the mine dispatch are notified
whenever there is an issue starting to
arise and avoidance procedures are set
in motion to avert a potentially critical
incident. The most recent of these
procedures is the trigger action
response protocol (TARP) that
manages warnings and alarms. This
will then initiate an emergency rapid
response protocol (ERRP) in the event
that the chamber temperature reaches
80˚C. This is the tyre manufacturer’s
chamber temperature threshold that
should not be exceeded in order to
prevent pyrolysis. Pyrolysis is the
spontaneous combustion of the air
inside the chamber with no visible
signs that the tyre is under duress.
This catastrophic event is ten times
more violent than a normal tyre
blow-out and can potentially result in
loss of life. Fortunately, due to the
procedures in place, this situation has
never arisen and it is extremely rare
that a tyre has heated up to 80˚C
triggering the ERRP, due to the early
warnings given by the TTT system.
In addition, with an increased focus
on the filling of OTR tyres with
nitrogen, TTT will be used to monitor
and record the long-term condition of
the nitrogen filled tyres on complying
sites. The data will then be analysed
along with historical data taken while
standard techniques were used for
inflation. This will help Kal Tire
produce reports that will give a very
good indicator for the benefits of
nitrogen filled tyres.
Setting a platform
Frank Wickert, Flanders, USA, explains how the Freedom Platform for
shovels can enhance DC rope shovel performance, while minimising the
structural stresses inherent in mine environments.
U
sing the rope shovel and its dedicated
truck fleet can be the most versatile
method to remove overburden and
low-grade material in order to expose the
mines valued resource, whether it be coal, copper,
gold or petrochemicals. Shovels are continually
designed with larger dippers and associated
infrastructure to minimise the cost of this non
value-added process. Unfortunately, the shovel
mechanical structure and material handling capacity
may have exceeded the associated OEM control
system and DC motor ability to support the full
potential of the shovel.
Flanders addressed this mismatch by developing
the Freedom™ Platform.
Problem
When the shovel boom and mechanical structure are at
its weakest point, i.e. while at fully extended crowd,
high in the bank with the hoist motors at or near stall
condition, the shovel operator instinctively manipulates
the crowd to compensate for the potential lack of crowd
January 2016 | World Coal | 45
and hoist power. Each time the crowd
is actuated to correct this impending
stall condition, a full fatigue cycle is
exerted on the boom, ropes, sticks and
body. This can lead to excess rope
wear, boom and dipper stress-fractures
and early motor failure. These
conditions also manifest into reduced
shovel cycle time.
Resolution
The Freedom Platform monitors these
stresses in real-time and dynamically
delivers increased hoist motor torque
when favourable dig conditions allow
(Figure 2). This is typically low in the
bank where the shovel is structurally
at its strongest point.
How does it work?
Freedom uses an open architecture
software that monitors shovel stresses
and electrical system parameters to
provide adaptive controls. Hoist
torque is increased only when dig
conditions allow. By using Flanders
crowd motor, which provides an
increased available stall current of up
to 50% (when properly equipped)
over the OEM motor, the operator is
able to enter the bank with more
torque, fill the dipper early in the dig
cycle, low in the bank. The open
architecture software design allows
the drive setting to be modified so it
is able to work in unique mine dig
conditions.
What equipment is
required?
Flanders’ Freedom upgrade includes
four critical components:
1. Flanders exclusive optimised bank
performance ‘OBP’.
2. Freedom control system, including
PLC software upgrade and ABB
DCS800 drive.
3. Flanders enhanced crowd motor.
4. Flanders enhanced hoist motors
(optional).
Freedom control system
The DCS800 drive is state-of-the-art
technology, which reassures customers
it will provide reliability and support
them for years to come. Flanders
open-architecture provides the option
to choose either Flanders or existing
OEM hoist motor.
Crowd motor
Figure 1. Productivity gains (short t/sec.).
Figure 2. Freedom Level 3 components.
46 | World Coal | January 2016
The Freedom upgrade incorporates the
improved reliability and performance
of Flanders’ designed M21 and F22
crowd motors. These motors fit in the
same footprint as competitive crowd
motors and boast increased available
stall current of up to 50% (when
properly equipped). This translates to
more allowable torque low in the bank
and ultimately faster cycle times.
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Flanders’ crowd motors have shown documented
electrical life of greater than 100% over competitive
motors. This supports longer uptime, reduced
maintenance cycles and lower cost of repairs.
Hoist motors
PHOENIX
SLOPE CONVEYOR
BELTS
Slope conveyors are the most cost-effective
means of transporting material from an underground mine to the surface and – if necessary –
from the surface back underground at the
same time.
PHOENOCORD Steel Cord Conveyor Belts
with integrated PHOENOTEC active protection
system and with highest fire resistant properties
are the perfect choice for underground
slope conveyors.
PHOENIX CONVEYOR BELT SYSTEMS.
We have the right solution for your challenges.
PHOENOCORD
Steel Cord Conveyor Belt
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Extreme Conveyor Belt Solutions
Flanders-designed M24 and M22A motors are drop in
replacements for competitive hoist motors. The motor is
designed to provide additional torque and deliver
exceptional life compared to the OEM motor. Current
applications have seen nearly 40 000 hr of continuous
operation with no maintenance or rework. The
commutator incorporates Flanders’ exclusive design that
ensures no degradation in life after performing turn and
undercut refurbishment. Unlike competitive motors that
may actually weaken the armature after rework, the
motors will continue to outperform their rivals.
Results for end users
The Freedom upgrade can provide increased reliability,
machine up-time and lower cost of maintenance.
Flanders estimates that the Freedom system will yield
an 8 – 10% increase in productivity (short t/sec). This
translates to more material moved at a lower cost per
short ton.
A recent upgrade in the Powder River Basin on a
P&H 4100XPC provided a 24% improvement in
performance – or short t/sec. as measured in this
example. The shovel cycle time was reduced on average
by more than 20%. This performance has been repeated
in subsequent upgrades. This example was conducted
in a coal application; therefore, performance results
may vary depending on a variety of external conditions
(i.e. shovel utilisation, dig conditions and truck
dedication). Following the significant improvements
that this particular mine owner encountered, it has
decided to order and install another system, and are
also currently considering a third shovel upgrade.
“The Flanders Freedom system upgrade allowed us
to turn one of our lower-performing shovels into the
highest-performing shovel in our fleet. In addition, we
have not seen any increased maintenance costs as a
result of the increased productivity of the machine,”
commented the Electrical Manager at the mine.
Each critical component of the Freedom upgrade
improved the overall performance of the shovel. This
allows the upgrade configuration to be selected in
accordance with a mine operation’s specific
requirements.
Return on investment
Extreme Conveyor Belt Solutions
PHOENIX CONVEYOR BELT
SYSTEMS GMBH
D-21079 Hamburg, Germany
Phone +49-40-7667-03
E-mail info@phoenix-cbs.com
Capital improvement expenditures are limited and
new equipment purchases are nonexistent. Therefore
it is essential to get the most out of current machines.
The typical payback on a Freedom upgrade is
typically less than twelve months depending on a
customer’s requirements, while the impact to the
bottom line is measurable and immediate.
COAL
CRUSHING
[
]
Dr York Reichardt and Sven Heuer, Hazemag, Germany,
elaborate on the use of crushers in coal operations.
C
oal crushing applications differ in a wide variety of ways. Coarse
crushing of overburden and coal down to approximately 250 mm
directly at a capacity of up to 3000 tph in the mine with Hazemag
horizontal impact crushers enables downstream belt conveying
instead of trucks. Producing coal in a fineness range of -20 mm or -100 mm at a
capacity level of 100 – 3000 tph is a typical task for Hazemag feeder breakers,
sizers, roller crushers, impactors or hammer mills – depending on the coal
properties and the project data. For in the product range of 30 – 100 mm, scalping
before crushing proves to be very economic. For finer products such as -5 mm or
-0.3 mm, Hazemag hammer mills are very suitable.
January 2016 | World Coal | 49
The roller screen takes out nearly
100% of the -65 mm fines at 1200 tph
feed and more than 95% of the fines
at 1500 tph. As a result, the
downstream feeder breaker is
relieved of about 600 – 700 tph of fine
product -65 mm, which leads to a
reduced crusher size.
Crushing
Depending on the detailed
requirements of the project, Hazemag
& EPR selects the appropriate type
and size of the crusher from its wide
portfolio of machinery for coal,
ranging from horizontal impact
crushers for coarse crushing to
hammer mills for a product particle
size of less than 1 mm.
Figure 1. Hazemag feeder breakers (HFB).
Hazemag feeder breakers
and horizontal impact
crushers
Figure 2. Hazemag horizontal impact crusher (HHI).
Scalping
Carrying out scalping with roller
screens before sending the material to
a crusher is a proven technology in
coal processing. Some of the main
advantages of using roller screens
before crushers are: lower wear,
reduced energy consumption,
reduced risk of clogging in the
crusher itself and – at best – in using a
smaller crusher. Hence, in general,
roller screens lead to reduced energy
and operational costs and/or
increased operational safety.
50 | World Coal | January 2016
Typical cut size is between 150 mm
down to 15 mm.
At a PT Indonesia plant, a
Hazemag HRS 2242 roller screen has
been in operation since August 2014
ahead of a Hazemag HFB 0714 feeder
breaker. The length and width of the
roller screen is 2.2 m by 4.2 m. It is
equipped with 16 shafts and two
22 kW drives each, with cut size of
65 mm. It is designed with a
guaranteed feed rate of 1000 tph coal.
Typical feed is 98% -600 mm with 50%
-65 mm and moisture of up to 25%.
The Hazemag feeder breakers (HFB)
and horizontal impact crushers
(HHI), together with HCF reclaim
feeders, are of particular interest to
both the underground and opencast
coal mining industry.
The following describes recently
installed HFB in Indonesia and
South Africa and presents their uses.
In South Africa’s Witbank
coalfield, a HFB for the primary
crushing station helped to simplify
the project installation and operation.
The HFB is used to crush ROM coal
at an average rate of 600 tph. Few to
no civil structures are required. The
design employs low truck ramps and
the trucks tip directly onto the
crusher’s chain feeder (Figure 1).
There is no need for expensive feed
hoppers or complex concrete or steel
structures as the tipping action
creates a natural bunker.
The HFB, which accepts feed sizes
of up to 2000 mm in edge length and
crushes the material down to 95% of
150 mm, was custom-scoped for the
project by Hazemag’s South African
subsidiary, IMS, and manufactured at
Hazemag & EPR’s facilities in
Dülmen, Germany.
Meanwhile, the Hazemag HHI (a
heavy-duty type of feeder breaker) is
able to handle a much harder type of
rock. It is ideal for ROM hard coal,
with a high percentage of hard rock
inclusions.
These units are used on a
significant scale in various coal mines
in China and southeast Europe,
where several large HHIs process
material directly from the pit wall
benches, while also crushing
overburden in the same operations.
The non‑requirement of a feeding
hopper enables customers to decide
according to their wishes to operate
with a natural buildup hopper or add
a steel hopper. Another use of these
feeder breakers is railroad unloading
stations at power plants or ports,
receiving coal directly from tipped
railcars.
Still compact, with low overall
height and easy to relocate, Hazemag
HHI-type models (Figure 2) cover
capacities of up to 4000 tph, accepting
a large feed of up to 3000 mm in edge
length and are able to crush hard
material. The Hazemag HHIs can
come on skids or without skids for
fixed or semi-permanent installation,
on tracks that are powered or
unpowered and free‑running and can
be coupled to a front-end loader or
dozer and pulled into position.
Figure 3. Hazemag roll crusher (HRC) with hydraulic gap adjustment.
Hazemag roll crushers
(HRC) and HCS and HSS
sizers
Hazemag chooses roll crushers or
sizers mainly when it comes to higher
surface moisture content or if the
product contains a low amount of
fines. The capacity range of Hazemag
roller crushers and sizers goes up to
several thousand tph.
A HRC 0813 roll crusher was
delivered for crushing 130 tph coal
and petcoke respectively from
130 mm down to 95% -45 mm at the
new Holcim Baroso cement line in
Brazil. The roll crusher is driven by
2 X 45 kW and the gap between the
rollers can be adjusted hydraulically,
which permits easy adaption of the
product size to the daily operations’
need (Figure 3). The range of
Hazemag HRC roll crushers goes up
to several thousand tph.
Crushing in Hazemag HSS series
side sizers takes place between the
outward rotating rollers and the
Figure 4. Hazemag side sizer (HSS).
associated crushing wall. Hazemag
side sizers are processing anode coke
in Russia. At the RUSAL plant
Boguchany, a HSS 0810 side sizer is
crushing 40 tph -500 mm down to
92% -60 mm, and in the RUSAL plant
Sayanogorsk a HSS 0610 produces
50 tph 80% -16 mm starting from a
feed size of 60 mm. In a cement plant
in Kuwait, a Hazemag HSS 0613 side
sizer crushes 180 tph of different coal
types from 200 mm down to 95%
-30 mm (Figure 4).
Hazemag HSI impact
crushers and HUV, HUM
and HNM hammer mills
If the surface feed moisture is limited
to a level of 5% and the designed
product size is in the range of 95%
-20 mm to 60 mm, the Hazemag HSI
impact crusher is the right choice. The
main advantages of this crusher are
low maintenance costs compared to
hammer mills due to an easy
geometry of the blow bars of an
impactor compared to hammers. This
directly results in lower costs of
spares but also permits the usage of a
higher percentage of the installed
wear mass. In addition, changing the
blow bars is much easier and hence
leads to shorter downtime.
For the power plant GRES-1, near
Ekibastus in the Pavlodar area of
Kazakhstan, Hazemag & EPR will
deliver a horizontal HHI 1525 impact
crusher for crushing coal from
January 2016 | World Coal | 51
Figure 5. Hazemag coal crushing plant for 2500 tph coal.
Figure 6. Product range of Hazemag hammer mills.
1000 mm to 200 mm. This will be
followed by a crushing plant, also to
be delivered by Hazemag, with
HRS 2426 roller screens and 1430
impact crushers to achieve a
52 | World Coal | January 2016
product size of -40 mm. The
capacity of this new installation
is 2500 tph (Figure 5). It is
scheduled to be commissioned in
summer 2017.
When it comes to higher surface
moisture of 5 – 10%, Hazemag
hammer mills are chosen instead of
impact crushers. Since the mid-80s,
six Hazemag HUV 1600/2000
hammer mills have each been
producing 1300 tph of lignite at
-40 mm in Turkish power plants:
Kemerköy, Yatagan and Yeniköy.
However, the widest range of
applications of Hazemag HUV,
HUM and HNM hammer mills is
in grinding coal or other materials to
a product range between 95% from
-10 mm to -0.3 mm (Figure 6). The
top size is achieved either by
integrated grates or by running the
hammer mill in closed circuit with an
external screen or a dynamic air
separator.
Moreover, hot gases from a hot gas
generator or another thermal process
can be introduced into the hammer
mill for simultaneously grinding and
drying. In this case, the safety
concept of the total plant dealing
with dried fine coal is of particular
importance.
Small steps
to
big results
Steve Bradbury, Dingo, USA, explains the Compound
Effect and illustrates how maximising on data to improve
seemingly small decisions can lead to big results.
A
s economic factors outside of the mining industry’s control continue
to drive pricing down, operations are cutting to the bone in order to
survive. This environment poses significant challenges for
organisations, including less manpower, fewer outside resources,
aging equipment and lower morale – to name a few. But these issues are readily
apparent and can be addressed. The bigger concerns are the ones that are not
immediately obvious. One of the most dangerous conditions that this
environment breeds – one that often goes undetected until it is too late – is a
phenomenon dubbed the ‘normalisation of deviance’ by sociologist
Dr Diane Vaughan.
January 2016 | World Coal | 53
The normalisation of deviance is
defined as: “the gradual process
through which unacceptable practice
or standards become acceptable. As
the deviant behaviour is repeated
without catastrophic results, it
becomes the social norm for the
organisation.” This process is difficult
to detect because it happens slowly,
over a series of small, seemingly
inconsequential decisions to cut
corners. And more often than not,
these shortcuts feel necessary at the
time because teams are under
enormous pressure. One of the most
famous examples of the disastrous
results that this phenomenon can lead
to was the failure of the O-ring
gaskets on the Space Shuttle
Challenger. Under incredible time and
cost pressure, NASA proceeded with
the launch when they had
overwhelming evidence that O-ring
failure could be catastrophic.
Typical asset health profile of mining fleet. According to Dingo’s global asset health
database, a significant number of mines are operating with close to half of their fleets
in abnormal condition.
Seeing the positives
But there is an upside to this
phenomenon. When organisations
make small, positive incremental
changes over time, they can create a
new, higher standard of operational
excellence. Author, Darren Hardy,
calls this the Compound Effect. The
key point is that every day, people in
an organisation make hundreds to
thousands of minor decisions that
collectively have major
consequences. When the systems and
processes are put in place to help
improve this collective
decision‑making, the entire
organisation will reap the benefits.
Dingo has spent 25 yr helping
mines take advantage of this
Compound Effect simply by tapping
into the power of underused data.
And while Big Data is getting a lot of
press lately, using this massive
amount of data will not necessarily
lead to the desired outcome. In fact,
Dingo often finds that companies are
drowning in it. Sound
decision‑making is not typically
driven by how much data a mine
has, it is driven by how well a mine
uses the data that it does have.
TRAKKA condition management software. A centralised software system with the right capabilities will provide personnel with the
tools to succeed and facilitate a process that drives the desired results.
54 | World Coal | January 2016
In the realm of maintenance, one
of a mine's biggest cost centres,
Dingo has identified three key tools
to help capitalise on data and
improve decision‑making across the
board:
data compiled from more than 50
mining operations across the globe,
33% of major components are
regularly operating in a warning
state – and more than 11% are
running in critical condition.
Supporting improvement
While getting all of this data into a
centralised condition management
system might seem daunting, a good
provider will offer guidance on both
the right data to capture and the best
1. A centralised condition
management software platform.
2. An integrated, close-looped
action tracking system.
3. Universally accessible
performance dashboards.
All of the data in the world is
useless unless a mine has a
centralised system to collect,
organise and connect condition data
and then transform it into actionable
knowledge.
When Dingo is engaged by a
maintenance operation to implement
an Asset Health program, the
company frequently uncovers a
tremendous amount of data that is
sitting idle in Excel files, desktop
folders, databases and even pdfs.
Because the data is disorganised and
difficult to access, people tend to
ignore it and make decisions without
complete information – a deviation
from the norm. Over time, these
suboptimal decisions affect the
health of costly equipment. Based on
Benefits of a close-looped process. An integrated, close-looped process that tracks
issues through resolution will create a cycle of continuous improvement.
TRAKKA performance dashboard. Performance dashboards provide clarity, increase accountability and help keep teams on track to
achieve goals.
January 2016 | World Coal | 55
way to capture it. For example,
TRAKKA, Dingo’s condition
management software, has an
extensive data connector library, a
comprehensive list of data
connections that are preconfigured to
seamlessly connect and interface with
condition monitoring data providers,
ERP systems and mobile field
inspection devices.
Once the data is in the system, a
predictive analytics engine can
provide excellent decision support.
However, a number of maintenance
organisations fall down because they
focus on task completion vs issue
resolution. By implementing action
tracking, where open issues and
actions taken are fed back to the
reliability team, maintenance
decisions continuously improve until
the equipment returns to a normal
operating state.
Finally, Dingo has learnt that
visibility is critical to achieving the
benefits of the Compound Effect. Two
important features to look for in this
area are unlimited users (or seats) and
a performance dashboard. Software
with limited licences tend to put the
control, and the power, in the hands
of a few individuals, which creates
functional silos and can hinder
decision-making. An open system
creates transparency that helps ensure
everyone has complete information
and context when they are making
those seemingly minor decisions.
Performance dashboards provide
two distinct advantages. First, they
force the team to come up with clear
goals that are well understood from
the ground up. By operating with the
end in mind, people tend to make
favourable choices with a higher
degree of consistency that lead to the
desired state. Second, what gets
measured, gets done. By providing
clear goals and visibly measuring
them, everyone starts taking
accountability for keeping the
organisation on course.
Another key insight is that the
mines that are successfully raising the
bar are not setting lofty, unachievable
goals and mandating that their teams
deliver them. These mines are setting
smaller, more attainable targets and
equipping their teams with the
decision-support tools to help them
maximise on the information
available.
A large North American coal
mining operation provides a strong
testament to the true value of the
Compound Effect. When Dingo
engaged with this company over
seven years ago, over 50% of its fleet
was running in critical to warning
condition. By bringing essential
condition data into an Asset Health
system and using this information to
systematically improve maintenance
decisions, these mines now
consistently operate with 90% of their
fleets in normal condition. This
improvement translates into over
US$20 million cost savings per year
– calculated through the rebuild cost
of breakdown avoidance and
component life extension. This
number dramatically increases when
labour and productivity savings are
added to the calculation.
Conclusion
In this environment, mines know
that they cannot afford to sit tight
and wait for a market upswing, but
most of the obvious cost cuts have
been made. It is time to look for the
less obvious, but potentially more
impactful ones. By equipping an
organisation with the systems and
tools to tap into the power of existing
data to help everyone make better
decisions – big and small – mines
will not only survive, they will
thrive.
Advertiser’s Index
ACPS Technical Conference 2016
39
Lubrication Engineers International
11
bauma 2016
35
MMD
4
Coal Preparation International 2016
31
pewag
IFC
Coaltrans India 2016
17
Palladian Publications
13, 29
Hillhead 2016
43
Phoenix Conveyor Belt Systems
48
Jennmar
IBC
PRB Coal User' Group Meeting
47
Joy Global
2
Sandvik
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9
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19
Komatsu
OFC, 23 SME 2016 Annual Conference & Expo 27
56 | World Coal | January 2016
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