NRE Avondale CollieryGujarat NRE FCGL Pty Limited acquired the...

NRE Avondale Colliery

Gujarat NRE FCGL Pty Limited acquired the mining leases comprising the whole of Avondale Colliery and the virgin unmined areas of Huntley Colliery in the southern coalfields of New South Wales, Australia. The colliery, renamed NRE Avondale Colliery is located approximately 20 km southwest of Wollongong and west of Yallah, and is about 18 kms from Port Kembla. The mining lease comprises of approximately 5500 ha within the Illawarra Coal Measures of Sydney Basin having recoverable reserves of around 100 million tonnes in the Wongawilli and Tongarra seams which produce high fluidity, low phosphorous, good quality hard coking coal.

Mining Plan

Prior to closure, the Avondale Colliery mined the Wongawilli and Tongarra seams. While the Avondale colliery ceased production in 1982 following a decline in the coking coal market, the Huntley Colliery stopped production in 1989 due to a closure of the Tallawarra power station to which it was a supplier of thermal coal. After cessation of production both mines were placed on a care and maintenance basis, with all entries to the mines being sealed in 1993.
The Company plans to recommence mining via the Avondale workings. Wongawilli seam holds the majority of reserves and delivers better products. The work will be carried out in two stages. Stage 1 (the re-opening of the mine portals and exploration works) is taking place under recently acquired approvals. Stage 2 (the proposal) involves the extraction of the coal and:

its road haulage from Avondale 1.5 km to stockpiles at the Huntley rehabilitation site, using existing access roads; and

use of back-loading on trucks currently delivering fill material to Huntley to transfer this coal to the Coal Loader for export.

It is intended to recover a minimum of two roadways from the portals to the face. One will act as the traveling roadway and be used to allow the passage of fresh air into the mine. The second will act as the conveyor roadway and be the return airway of the ventilation circuit. A ventilation fan will be installed on the belt road portal.

The closest mining face is 1100 m from the portals. A full conveyor system will be installed in conjunction with the roadway recovery process. Services will be systematically installed to provide electricity, water for fire fighting and dust suppression, and compressed air for pumping and the operation of roof bolting equipment. Once all of the services have been extended through to the mining face, production equipment can be introduced and coal cutting commenced shortly thereafter.

It is planned to have the first production unit in place by December 2006 in the Main Western Headings. A second unit may be introduced into the southern headings (3 West) in mid 2007, dependant on conditions encountered in the 3 south headings.

Environment & Safety

The scale of the operation as well as the planned methodology will ensure a minimal impact on the environment. Further environmental studies are planned to support the long-term mine plan. This will assess the impacts of the proposed coal winding shaft, ventilation fan and coal loading facility on the escarpment. Surface to seam exploration boreholes will be required to be drilled on Sydney Catchment land and appropriate precautious will be taken.

Mine Safety Management Plans spell out the standards for the management of safety on site. These have been developed by the Mine Manager and submitted to the District Mines Inspector for review and necessary confirmation. The plans have been developed using certain assumptions about the conditions to be encountered underground. The plans cover such aspects as the mine’s ventilation, roof support, and fire fighting provisions.

The NRE Avondale Colliery will ensure an uninterrupted supply of coking coal to Gujarat NRE Coke Limited, the largest producer of low ash metallurgical coke in India and insulate it against price volatility.

Documents