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• W183025087 abstract "Any project carries a number of challenges and risks. Inappropriate design, poor project management, time, industrial disputation and capital over runs are all areas which can impact on a project cash flows and return on investment. In the resource Industry you have the added complexity and risk of geology which is difficult to predict and sometimes unforgiving. The Dartbrook Mine was designed and constructed as a high output longwall mine and has overcome a number of hurdles to produce over 2.3 million tonnes for the fIrst year of operation. A number of problems were encountered during construction which resulted in the inseam development being delayed for six months. Dartbrook people have demonstrated they can manage adversity and produce world class results. The mine has been through a very steep learning curve during 1997 and with this experience behind the mine is now producing at an annualised rate of 3.4 MTPA. INTRODUCTION Dartbrook Mine was designed and constructed as a new underground longwall coal mine with a planned capacity of around 3.5 million tonnes per year. The mine is located in the upper Hunter Valley 10 kilometres north of Muswellbrook NSW. Construction of the mine commenced in June 1993 and inseam development commenced in October 1994 from the bottom of the 1200 metres 1 in 8 grade men and materials drift. The longwall was installed in September 1996 and when completed in mid October 1997 2.24 million tonnes had been mined by the longwall. Results from the first longwall block were exceptional considering the challenges of steep grade, new technology and managing abnormal quantities of gas. MINE CONSTRUCTION -LESSONS LEARNT The Shell Board approved the project in April 1993 and when construction commenced in June 199:3 the project was already six months behind schedule. Project Managers were appointed to manage the construction of the mine. The contract was written for the Engineering, Procurement, Construction and Management (EPCM) of the project. The Dartbrook management team were employed before the project commenced which provided the opportunity for input into the mine design, contracts and equipment selection. Having a Project Manager also provided the opportunity for the management team to develop operating parameters for the mine, design systems, negotiate labour agreements and recruit people. However, Project Managers are expensive at 5% of the total Capital value of the Project. The Project Managers at Dartbrook were good at building offices, workshops and coal handling facilities but did not have the experience on underground construction work. We spent a lot of time arguing with our Project Managers and also employed contractors to keep the Contractors honest. The end result was well engineered and constructed infrastructure with an good safety , Industrial and environmental record, but the project exceeded capital estimates by around 8% and underground development commenced 6 months behind schedule. The experience gained indicated that an in house project team could reliably manage the construction for a new mine. There is sufficient expertise available in terms of experienced mining and engineering people now in consulting roles to assemble a well balanced team to design and construct a mine. Mine Manager Dartbrook Mine COAL98 Conference Wollongong 18. 20 February 1998 224 MINE DESIGN The concept of a thick coal seams and the opportunity to develop 4 metre roadways sounds exciting and has a number of obvious advantages but also presents a number of challenges. Larger roadways assist in keeping ventilation pressures low and permit larger equipment to be transported and installed underground but presents difficulties in the installation of roadway supports and hanging the services at roof height . Equipment to mine at 4.0 to 4.5 metres was not readily available off the shelf' and Dartbrook has had to design and install some very innovative development, longwall and support equipment to meet the challenges of mining thick seams. With a coal seam that has never been worked before we realised that we needed a comprehensive data base of information to be able to plan with high confidence levels. The mine plan was designed for the best recovery of the resource and orientation of mains and longwall blocks with due consideration given to geological features, grades and the management of gas, water and spontaneous combustion. The exploration program and mine design have been shown to be the best for Oartbrook with no major shocks after 3 years of operation. The coal seam is as good, or better than anticipated with only minor faulting and dykes. We always knew that gas and spontaneous combustion were issues that were unique in a 22 to 24 metres coal section and that we would have to come up with some unique solutions. PEOPLE -RECRmTMENT , TRAINING AND ERA'S The quality of people at Dartbrook has demonstrated the importance of the recruitment process. The process was time consuming, costly and involved a significant number of people . Dartbrook personnel completed a seven week training program before entering the workplace. The value of this is bearing fruit, not only in terms of knowledge and skills but in the development of a unique safety and team oriented culture. This has led to a desire for training and qualifications, which has to be managed. The mine has been in operation for over three years and the energy and enthusiasm is still evident in the entire workforce. During 1998 Dartbrook Mine will negotiate the third Enterprise Agreement with its workforce. The first EA was negotiated with the District Officials of the CFMEU and the majority of employees were recruited under this agreement. At the time the agreement contained some very innovative and ground breaking changes which have carried through to the Second EA which was settled for a three year tenn. The basis of the fIrst EA was fixed salaries, all inclusive of allowances, overtime and production bonuses. In return employees were required to work rotating shifts of 8.5 hours duration five days per week and commit to work allocated overtime. The only changes to the second EA is a step change to level 4 and 6 of the Industry work model, greater use of contractors and the overtime component reduced to allow a separate payment for weekend overtime when worked. Of interest, the second EA included the option for all employees to salary sacrifice for a fully maintained company provided car. Approximately 60% of the workforce have availed themselves of this opportunity. It is worthy of note that the concept of production bonus payments has lost its appeal and Dartbrook people are pressing good performances because of personal pride in doing a good job and in their mine. Along with the rest of the Coal Industry we are paying our people higher salaries than other Industries however I believe time and technology will develop realistic labour cost. Industrial relations at Dartbrook remain to be very strong and robust. Although Dartbrook has maintained excellent management / labour relationships over the three years of operation, I believe that it could be enhanced by talking direct with our people without District Union intervention on critical issues. We have built up a strong relationship with our people based on two way trust which could explore mutually agreed new opportunities outside the traditional union structure. SAFETY Another greenfields opportunity is the setting of high standards of safety which can be an integral part of the induction training program and be written into the mines operating procedures. From the design and construction stage, Dartbrook set very high safety standards with hazops, risk assessments, procedures and Risk Management Plans (RMP' s) being COAL98 Conference Wollongong 18 -20 February 1998 225 utilised as tools for the mine construction and operation. Only Contractors with good safety performances were considered for construction work on the site. Contractors have to go through a rigerous pre-qualification process to work at Dartbrook and Contractors with poor safety history are not considered for the tendering process. External and internal safety audits are an ongoing activity at Dartbrook and maintain the safety focus. Extensive induction and training programs have assisted in setting a unique safety culture at Dartbrook. Safety perfonDance has been excellent for the first 2 years with L11FR's less than 10. However 1997 was disastrous in tenDS of safety perfonDance with 12 L TI's and one fatality .The fatal accident to a young contractor in January 1997 was a very sobering reminder that too much time cannot be spent on safety .The accident was a major shock to all employees who did not believe that such a tragedy could occur in a mine with such high standards and a strong safety culture. Initially contractor safety perfonDance during the first year of construction was very poor with an LTIFR of around 25. We have now fonDed long tenD partnerships with contracting organisations who have accepted the mines high safety standards. The two major Contractors have retained a regular experienced workforce and employed fulltime safety and training persons. The Unions initially did not like to see regular contractor organisations on site because of the fear of Contractors taking potential jobs away from penDanent workers. After the accident everyone realised that you cannot have new and unknown contractors on site and good safety is having well trained and experienced people who you can trust to maintain the standards." @default.
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• W183025087 date "1998-01-01" @default.
• W183025087 modified "2023-09-26" @default.
• W183025087 title "Dartbrook Mine - a case study" @default.
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