Tag Archives: Malabar Resources

PIMS Mining gains more work in NSW coal sector with Appin and Maxwell agreements

Coal technology, Mine operation news, Mineral project development, Mining services, Steel and iron ore, , , , , , , , , ,

PIMS Group subsidiary, PIMS Mining, says it has been awarded a three-year fixed term contract – with a one-year extension option – with South32’s Illawarra Coal Holdings Pty Ltd, continuing to provide supplementary labour to its metallurgical coal mine, Appin, in New South Wales, Australia.

Appin mine is around 70 km south of Sydney and 37 km north of Wollongong, which produces premium-quality, hard coking coal for steelmaking, that is transported within Australia and around the world.

The scope of the contract includes providing supplementary labour for development, longwall, outbye and coal clearance processes. PIMS will require a variety of skilled personnel to support the increase to scope, from the previous contract.

South32’s Illawarra Metallurgical Coal operations has underground mines at Appin and Dendrobium, which produce premium-quality, hard coking coal for steelmaking.

PIMS Mining was also recently awarded Preferred Contractor status and received a Letter of Intent from Malabar Resources subsidiary Maxwell Ventures (Management) Pty Ltd to provide services for the Maxwell underground bord and pillar operation, in New South Wales.

Construction of the mine entry portals for the Whynot Seam bord and pillar operation is underway with the current project timeline requiring labour on site in January 2023 with a ramp up throughout the remainder of the March quarter.

The scope of the contract includes underground mining, employing the place change system and targeting run of mine production rates in the order of 900,000 t/y-1 Mt, PIMS said. During operation, PIMS Mining will work closely with the Maxwell leadership team to manage all aspects of the operations in the Whynot Seam, including planning, production of coal, maintenance and operation of all production equipment, conveyors, infrastructure and general mine construction, as well as ancillary activities.

PIMS Group Managing Director, Richard Mills, said: “PIMS Mining has extensive experience in underground coal mining, especially in safe, high productivity bord and pillar operations across Queensland and New South Wales and are excited to bring this experience to the Maxwell operation.”

Metarock Group transformation takes shape with new coal contracts

Coal technology, Mine operation news, Mining services, Steel and iron ore, , , , , , , ,

Australia-listed Metarock Group has banked two contract wins this week, one at the Cook Colliery in Queensland and one at the Maxwell underground coal project in New South Wales.

The former has seen its Mastermyne subsidiary become the contract operator at Cook for Constellation Mining, a subsidiary of QCoal Group. The contract term of four years comes with a further two-year option and the company will see work commence immediately under the Mining Services Agreement.

The Cook Colliery was purchased by QCoal in July 2020 and has been maintained under care and maintenance since the acquisition. In July 2021, Mastermyne was selected to carry out a package of work to prepare the mine to re-commence production. This work included recommissioning of existing underground infrastructure, overhauling of mining equipment, establishment of production panels and other associated administrative and procurement works. This first tranche of work has been completed and the mine is now ready to commence production.

Mobilisation underground is already well progressed with the first Joy (Komatsu) miner underground and cutting coal as it forms up the production panels that will see the next Joy machines start production mining using a low-risk place changing methodology, Metarock said.

The project will produce approximately 4 Mt of run of mine coal over four years across three production panels.

At Maxwell underground, Metarock’s PYBAR Mining Services has been named the preferred contractor for the Maxwell Underground Project Access Drifts as part of an executed letter of intent with Malabar Resources. The contract term of 12 months will commence later this year following the execution of a binding Alliance-style mining services pact.

The scope consists of twin parallel drifts around 1.3 km in length, which will provide access to the targeted coal seams. Excavation of the drifts will be carried out with metalliferous-style drill and blast equipment and methods, modified for operating within a coal mining lease.

Having only recently completed the acquisition of PYBAR and the renaming of Mastermyne to Metarock, MD Tony Caruso said: “Mastermyne’s transformation from an underground coal contractor to a diversified mining services provider is taking shape and the awarding of this project (Maxwell) is a major vote of confidence from customers in the new larger business.”

He added: “This project is quite unique in that it brings together the combination of the Mastermyne and PYBAR skill-sets, which is a real differentiator for the Metarock Group.”