Anglo American recently announced that its new Aquila mine has achieved its first longwall shear of steelmaking metallurgical coal on schedule and on budget, marking the project’s final stages of construction and commissioning. The Aquila mine is one of the most technologically advanced underground mines in Australia, taking full advantage of Anglo American’s advances in underground automation technology, remote operations and data analysis. The mine is characterised by two longwall faces, which can realise continuous production. Both longwalls have full remote capability and operate sequentially from an on-site remote operations centre.
The mine also marks a new entry to the Australian market for a major Chinese equipment supplier, with the two sets of hydraulic roof supports for the two 350 m longwalls of the mine having been manufactured and supplied by China Coal Beijing Coal Machinery Company (BMJ). The units are ZY14790/15/25D powered hydraulic supports. The units were shipped to the Port of Mackay. While this is not the first time that BMJ has shipped supports to Australia, it is notable for the project scale. BMJ says the intelligent support equipment offers large output values, and high working resistance for lower height coal seams. In Australia, BMJ partners with NEPEAN Longwall based in Paget, a Mackay suburb.
The overall design, parts design, finite element analysis, processing technology and manufacturing management was all conducted by BMJ. After careful design, precise development and lean manufacturing at a high technology level, as well as over 60,000 fatigue life tests, the prototype was passed. BMJ says the project has laid the foundation for the further development of its international market.
BMJ was established in 1958 with a factory covering an area of 638,000 square metres and over 2,500 employees with more than 100 engineering and technical professionals. In 1998, BMJ was certified with the ISO9001 quality assurance system accreditation, and it is one of the top machinery enterprises in China. Since beginning powered roof supports manufacture in 1972, products have been developed for a wide range of specifications (more than 760 different types ranging from 0.55 m up to 8.5 m in height and from 1,800 Kn to 26,000 Kn in yield load).
Overall for Aquila, Anglo American awarded nearly A$200 million to six longwall equipment suppliers to deliver a walk-on, walk-off system using two complete longwalls, a A$20 million overland conveyor system and more than A$20 million in civil works.
