Engineering at Coal Mines

Mining millions of tonnes of material requires significant infrastructure and planning. Orana Engineering has been engaged on multiple occasions at Glencore’s Oaky No. 1 underground coal mine, to design new conveyor drivehead chambers to install equipment for longwall mining. Using the client’s existing mine plan, Orana Engineering design drafting personnel worked in tandem with engineers to assess required chamber locations and dimensions, with consideration to the size and orientation of equipment to be installed and minimising the material to be excavated. An AutoCAD drawing set was produced detailing the extent of mining required along with an overlay showing future equipment installations, enabling the client to efficiently complete chamber mining with a design suitable for future installations and minimal rework.

Carborough Downs is an underground operation utilising conveyors to transport mined coal to the surface. As new longwall headings are mined, new conveyor installations are also required. Orana Engineering was engaged to complete a drive-head chamber design, ensuring adequate sizing for installation of conveyor equipment. During initial mining of the chamber, a coal seam fault line was discovered. Carborough Downs requested that Orana Engineering develop a chamber design that maximised product mined through the fault area, while working within conveyor installation constraints. Using AutoCAD, Orana Engineering produced several design options and sketches for client approval and reference during mining processes. Orana Engineering provided final chamber excavation drawings, which were developed into mine designs and sequence plans, by site mining engineers.

At the completion of Tailings Pumping Upgrades of the Main CHPP and Module 4 CHPP at Oaky Creek Coal, Orana Engineering received As Built drawings from site and was requested to make electronic revisions for upload into the client’s Drawing Management System. Over 80 drawings had received red pen site mark-ups indicating either that the design had been constructed as per the drawings, or highlighting design changes made during the construction phase of the project. Orana Engineering reviewed these mark-ups and formally revised all drawings to As Built status, incorporating the site mark-ups. The final set of drawings was uploaded to the client’s Drawing Management System ensuring site personnel had access to the latest As Built drawings.

Orana Engineering was engaged by Glencore to design and install a detailed arrangement of tripper drives, brakes, pulley frame and load station for the MG32 conveyor at its Oaky No.1 underground coal mine. Mechanical design considerations included operating capabilities, unimpeded travel road access and minimum belt curves. The design was dependent on the civil installation previously detailed by Orana Engineering. Often equipment is simply re-located from previous installations with minor modifications. Orana Engineering has developed unique methods for completing this type of design efficiently and at reduced cost to our clients. AutoCAD was used to develop a mechanical design, from which a drawing set was produced that detailed out the mechanical aspects of the tripper installation

BMA Gregory Crinum engaged Orana Engineering to perform an audit and inspection of the Crinum underground mine surface fire water system with respect to providing adequate pressure and flow for the Crinum North conveyor system and stockpile conveyor. Orana Engineering completed a site inspection and audit against the design drawings, with site-verified information then used for compliance assessment in line with Australian Standards. The audit included in-depth assessment of the fire water system to Australian, BMA and site Fire Management Standards. Hydraulic modelling of the fire system was also undertaken to validate existing pressure measurements. Orana Engineering was able to make recommendations regarding compliance and system hydraulic performance, which assisted BMA in improving system capacity.

Orana Engineering was engaged by Oaky Creek Coal to assist in design and construction of onsite camp accommodation, including an HV substation for power and potable water supply. Our brief included mechanical, electrical and control systems design, drafting and engineering for the project. Deliverables included scope of works, construction drawings, functional specification, drawing and equipment registers, commissioning and operating spares lists and equipment and instrument data sheets. Orana Engineering provided PLC configuration and commissioning assistance for pump control, acted as Client Representative during construction, managed onsite commissioning of the system, and provided a handover to operations for implementation. Operation & Maintenance Manuals for potable water storage and the HV substation were provided upon completion.

The purpose of the Reagent System Upgrade at Oaky Creek was installation of new reagent storage tanks, discharge / delivery pumping systems and automated flow control distribution manifolds for the delivery of each reagent to the nominated process connections. Orana Engineering performed mechanical, electrical and control systems design, drafting and engineering for the project. The primary deliverables included scope of works, construction drawings, functional specification, BOM, spares lists and equipment / instrument data sheets. Orana Engineering managed the onsite commissioning of the system and provided a system handover to operations for implementation. An Operation & Maintenance Manual and Hazardous Area Dossier were provided on project completion.

Oaky Creek Coal engaged Orana Engineering to perform electrical and control system design aspects of a 22M Flyover Conveyor to provide an interface between two existing conveyor systems. Orana Engineering’s brownfield engineering expertise was drawn upon to resolve complexities in interfacing two different coal streams, powered from separate substations and controlled from independent process control systems. Should one system need to be shutdown it was necessary that the other system was not impacted. The electrical engineering scope included powering the conveyor and transfer systems and providing lighting designs and power distribution. Control system engineering included selection and specification of instrumentation, specification of control system hardware and development of a functional specification.

Engineers at Glencore’s Oaky No. 1 underground coal mine engaged Orana Engineering to determine civil work requirements to install tripper equipment on the MG32 longwall conveyor. On completion of chamber mining, finished surfaces (rib and floor) may require modification for the installation of conveyor tripper equipment. The civil design must determine concrete grades for drainage, safe access and reinforcing for conveyor equipment, while minimising trimming and concrete required. Manipulating “as-cut” survey data using AutoCAD, Orana Engineering design staff could accurately determine where tripper equipment could be installed with minimal trimming and concreting. A drawing set was produced detailing civil aspects of the tripper design, including chamber trimming, equipment mounting locations, configuration of reinforcing and relative concrete levels for drainage.

Orana Engineering was requested to complete an audit of water and wastewater services at BMA’s Blackwater Mine. The audit was to determine whether new go-line infrastructure would adversely impact the existing mine industrial area services, and whether additional infrastructure or upgrades were required. Data collected from site by Orana Engineering was used to prepare a hydraulic model for each service. Modelling results, findings and recommendations were included in a detailed report outlining the capacity and utilisation of existing services to quantify available system capacity for the proposed new buildings. Additionally, Orana Engineering’s drawing revision services were utilised to formally revise site P&IDs to As Built, incorporating mark-ups made during the site visit.