Newlands Northern underground mine in Queensland’s Bowen basin, Australia, is the new record holder for both weekly and monthly production from longwall operations. In May 2009, the mine extracted 961,891 t from its longwall, beating Beltana’s previous record of 955,049 t set in November 2005. Both mines are operated by Xstrata Coal and use mining motors engineered and manufactured by ATB Morley in Yorkshire, England, whose international sales were recognised earlier this year with a Queens Award for Enterprise: International Trade 2009.

The Newlands Northern mine produces export thermal coal from both underground and open-pit operations and also took the weekly record away from Beltana with production of 251,720 t in a single week ending May 5, 2009. Beltana still holds the daily record but Newlands came close last month with a peak daily output of 45, 935 t from the same longwall that now holds the weekly and monthly records.

The Newlands longwall is equipped with Bucyrus EL3000 shearers which have installed power of 1,590 kW and cutting power of 2 x 650 kW.

The shearer employs a jumbotrack 2000 haulage system with haulage power of 2 x 125 kW and is fully automated. The longwall is equipped with 147 two-leg roof supports with a yield load of 1,040 t and a working range of 3 – 5m. The face conveyer is a Bucyrus PF4, 1332mm wide with a 42mm twin inboard chain with 2 x 855 kW CST drives.

The longwall is controlled by Bucyrus PM 4 controllers, with the 400 kW PF4/1532 coal crusher and 400 kW SK11/18 beam stage loader also from Bucyrus, and motors manufactured at ATB Morley’s factory in Yorkshire.