Engineering at Coal Mines

Due to expanding operations, Oaky North underground operations saw benefit in having an underground workshop and refuelling stations to reduce vehicle travel times and increase efficiencies. Orana Engineering was engaged to provide concept design and estimating assistance for project approval. From communications with our client, Orana Engineering prepared concept general arrangement drawings for consideration. Based on these concept design drawings, a project capital estimate and project schedule were prepared for Oaky North underground operations. From the information presented by Orana Engineering, Oaky North could accurately consider whether the underground workshop was feasible, and ensure that appropriate budgets and project planning was completed at the concept design phase to improve confidence in the project prior to execution.

Maingate roadways mined to accommodate longwall conveyors at Glencore’s Oaky No. 1 underground coal mine can vary from a few hundred meters to over 4 kilometres in length. Transporting vast quantities of coal over long distances requires a significant amount of power. In some cases the drive-head power is insufficient or is constrained by the allowable belt tension and an additional drive / power source is required to meet the required operating capacity. Commonly this additional power will come in the form of a driven conveyor tripper installed at a nominal point along the conveyor, which requires the appropriate excavation for the tripper installation inclusive of drives, tripper frame, braking and belt starter.

For personnel safety and compliance with Queensland’s Coal Mining Safety & Health Regulation it is a requirement for mine sites to provide electrical workers with access to up-to-date drawings for electrical equipment and electrical installations. To improve the maintainability of plant electrical systems and personnel safety, Hail Creek Mine engaged Orana Engineering to create bound books of electrical drawings for Draglines 1 and 7 and Shovel 14. Multiple books were made for each machine in both A4 and A3 sizes and using waxed (water proof) paper to ensure longevity. Using vendor drawings from the client, Orana Engineering produced bound books containing all electrical power, control and termination diagrams associated with the respective mobile plant.

Carborough Downs Coal underground mine had transitioned from a bord and pillar mining system to longwall. The result was a need to upgrade capacity of the coal clearance conveyor system. Orana Engineering was engaged to provide Client Engineering assistance to deliver underground conveyor equipment to meet the longwall production schedule. Orana Engineering monitored vendor design progress against the schedule, performed design reviews to ensure correction of errors prior to final client approval, monitored and managed fabrication and delivery schedules and managed budget and variations in line with the contract. By co-ordinating with the client’s installation group and managing the vendor in line with the client’s schedule, the conveyors were successfully installed and made available for longwall production.

Since 2005, Orana Engineering has provided 24/7 support for Oaky Creek Coal control systems. At the coal handling and preparation plant, a Yokogawa DCS installed in 1998, is used as the primary control system. With existing CentumCS Unix software no longer supported by Yokogawa, it was essential to complete an upgrade to the CentumCS3000 system. Orana Engineering developed conversion tools to allow configuration data to be extracted from the CentumCS Unix platform and imported into the CentumCS3000 environment. These tools provided efficiency and accuracy for the conversion and delivered a significant cost saving. The quality of conversion tools and simulation programs developed by Orana Engineering resulted in highly efficient site commissioning, completed without plant downtime.