UNITED STAND

摘要

Six years after it was first investigated, United's longwall is about to shear its first coal. The mine, 15km west of Singleton in the New South Wales Hunter Valley, will next month commence longwall production using equipment from the mothballed Teralba pit near Newcastle.Converting the operation from bord and pillar to longwall has long been on the cards, but only when Enex Resources became the majority owner in 1999 was the possibility reassessed. The option became even more attractive when the Macquarie Coal joint venture (in which Enex holds an 80 percent interest) made the decision to place Teralba on care and maintenance, making available 135 Joy series 3 shields (vintage circa mid-1980s) and a Joy armoured face conveyor. Because the working range of the Teralba shields closely matched the projected range for the seam at United, the longwall could be introduced at the latter site for much lower capital expenditure than was originally envisaged with new equipment.