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Steel Authority of India (SAIL) is considering buying coking
coal mines in Australia, Indonesia and Mozambique
with an Indian government joint venture, reports
Business Standard.
SAIL, one of five companies in the International Coal Ventures,
is boosting steel output to meet domestic demand that continues
to grow. It’s estimated that steel demand in India may rise 8.9
percent in 2009 and 12.1 percent in 2010, reported the World
Steel Association.
Two mines in Queensland and another in Western Australia will be
fast-tracked through the planning process with federal
government assistence.
The Roy Hill 1 iron ore project, 270 kilometres south of Port
Hedland in Western Australia, is expected to generate $5 billion
worth of annual export earnings, and create 1,200 jobs when
operations begin in 2013. The Alpha and Kevin’s Corner coking
coal mines in central Queensland’s Galilee Basin are expected to
create 3,000 jobs and generate annual export earnings of $6
billion. The three multi-billion dollar mines are being proposed
by Hancock Prospecting Limited. A spokesman for Infrastructure
and Regional Development Minister Anthony Albanese said the
Federal Government would help the mines negotiate the approval
process with different levels of government.
Bow Energy Limited announces an upgrade to the certified Coal
Seam Gas (CSG)
reserves for its Blackwater CSG Field in Queensland’s Bowen
Basin with significant future reserve upgrades expected from the
field. MHA Petroleum Consultants, LLC, have certified 559
petajoules (PJ) of possible reserves (3P) gas reserves for the
Rangal Coal Measures within the Blackwater CSG Field, located in
Bow’s Comet CSG block. This represents a 385 PJ (321 percent)
increase over the previous 3P reserves certified in the field
and takes Bow’s total net 3P reserves to 664 PJ.
Newlands Northern underground mine in the Bowen Basin,
Queensland, Australia,
is the new record-holder for weekly and monthly production from
longwall operations. In May 2009, the mine extracted 961,981
tons from the longwall, beating Beltana’s previous record of
955,049 tons. Both mines are operated by Xstrata Coal. The
Newlands longwall is Bucyrus-equipped with an EL3000 shearer
with installed power of 1590 kW and cutting power of 2x650 kW.
The shearer has a Jumbo track 2000 haulage system with haulage
power of 2x125 kW. The shearer is fully automation-capable. The
longwall is equipped with 147 2-leg roof supports with a yield
load of 1040 tons with a working range of 3-5 meters. The face
conveyor is a Bucyrus PF4, 1332 mm wide with a 42mm twin inboard
chain with 2x855 kW CST drives. The longwall is controlled by
Bucyrus PM4 controllers. The mine produces export thermal coal
from underground and open-cut operations.
Essar Oil Ltd plans to start production of natural gas from coal
seams in West Bengal, India,
by the end of this year. The area has gas reserves of 2.2
trillion cubic feet and could produce 2.5 million cubic meters a
day of the peak rate in three years, Essar reports. India
imports about 75 percent of its energy requirements, and is
currently holding talks with potential bidders for India’s
biggest oil and gas field auction, including 10 coal bed methane
blocks. Reliance Industries and Oil & Natural Gas Corp. have
135.8 billion cubic meters of coal-seam gas reserves. India is
offering 70 oil and gas areas to domestic and overseas companies
in a bid to increase local output and reduce dependence on
imports.
Exxaro Resources Ltd of Pretoria, South Africa, reports a 12
percent gain in first-half profits after selling
more fuel to state utility Eskom Holdings Ltd. and overseas.
Net income rose to $174 million. However, second half domestic
prices for thermal and coking coal are expected to decline
because of contractual agreements.
Enviro Energy International Holdings, Singapore, plans to drill
up to five wells of coal-bed methane/shale gas in western China
this year and five more in 2010, a company official said. Hong
Kong’s Enviro will pump some $2.25 million in exploratory
activities in China in the Junggar Basin in western Xinjiang
province. The Junggar basin is estimated to hold 69 trillion
cubic feet of gas resources. The project is a joint venture
between China United Coalbed Methane Corp. and Terrawest. China
holds 36 trillion cubic meters (1,271 trillion cu ft) in
coal-bed methane gas reserves the worlds third largest after
Russia and Canada. It will boost power-generating capacity from
plants burning coal-bed methane by 63 percent to 1.5 gigawatts
by 2010.
Indonesia’s PT Delta Dunia Petroindo Tbk has reached an
agreement to buy a coal mining contractor PT Bukit Makmur
Mandiri Utama for $550 million.
The transaction should be completed in the fourth quarter 2009,
subject to shareholder and regulatory approval. Indonesia is
expecting to produce some 240 million tons of coal this year, up
from 238 million tons last year.
China’s Shanghai Zenith has introduced a sand washing plant
that includes a vibrating feeder, jaw crusher, vertical shaft
impact crusher (sand making machine), vibrating screen, sand
washing machine, belt conveyor and centrally electric
controlling system. Capacity is from 50t/h to 500 t/h.
Cougar Energy has lifted the resource at the Wandoan tenement in
Queensland’s Surat Basin to 341 million tons,
opening up the possibility of another underground coal
gasification project. Cougar lifted the JORC-compliant resource
from a 73Mt base to 307Mt inferred and 34Mt indicated resource.
The upgrade exceeded expectations of 200-300Mt.
Xstrata, Plc, plans to invest $1.6 billion over five to six
years in expanding production of fossil fuel in South Africa.
The company is planning to invest in the Zonnebloem coal
project, currently in the conceptual stage. Zonnebloem will
produce 12 million metric tons when completed.
REY Resources is considering establishment of a thin seam
longwall as part of several mines in the Canning Basin coal
project in Western Australia.
Rey upgraded the JORC-compliant resources at the
Duchess-Paradise project to total resources of 511 million tons
of thermal coal, including 35.2Mt measured, 143.5Mt indicated
and 331 Mt inferred. Rey’s current plan is to truck coal 180km
up the Great Northern Highway to export 2Mt through Derby’s
port.
Continuous miner production is set to start at the Whitehaven
Coal development of Narrabri
in the Gunnedah Basin of New South Wales. Initial production
from continuous miners is expected to be 700,000 tons per year,
while second-stage development will have a longwall installed in
early 2011 to lift output to 6 million tons per annum.
Second-stage mining would be from a 300m-long by 4.2m-high
longwall with high production expected, due to the thickness and
continuity of the coal seam. The company said saleable yield
would be greater than 90 percent.
The Australian Rail Track Corporation expected coal tonnages to
more than double from the Ulan and Gunnedah rail lines in the
Hunter Valley Coal chain by 2012.
Bolstered by $A580 million of federal infrastructure funding,
ARTC is about two-thirds through its bag of Newcastle-to-Muweilbrook
rail projects planned to 2013. The company has completed
one-third of its Musweilbrook-to-Ulan projects and is halfway
through its Musweilbrook-to-Narrabri rail project pipeline.
Overall, ARTC expects 164Mt of coal to be handled from the
Hunter Valley to Newcastle port in 2012.
The Donkin Coal Alliance – 25 percent owned by Erdene Resource
Development and 75 percent by Xstrata
– is completing a feasibility study of a continuous miner
evaluation and development program in Nova Scotia as a first
step to development of a longwall. The planned longwall will
produce 4 million tons per year for domestic and export market.
Hancock Prospecting is considering longwall mining at Kevin’s
Corner in Queensland’s Galilee Basin
and has begun an environmental impact study for neighboring
Alpha Coal’s project. Two subsidiary companies have been
established with Hancock Coal looking after Alpha Coal and
Hancock Galilee responsible for Kevin’s Corner. Each project
aims to produce 30 million tons of thermal coal.
Linc Energy’s Galilee Basin tenement in Queensland has lifted
its coal mineralization exploration target from 3-3.4 billion
tons to 5-5.5bt,
based on initial drilling results. Drilling has intersected
seams more than 35m thick and 65-70m deep. Linc said that
drilling implied a strip ratio of 4:1.
Explorer Coalworks reports results from a 34-hole drilling
program at the Oaklands project in New South Wales with coal
intersections up to almost 16m recorded.
New results from 14 holes in the northern section of the project
had intersections of the Lane Shaft seam varying between 13.34m
and 15.94m in thickness. The best intersection, at 15.94m,
started 134.47m underground and included 10m at an energy rating
of 5151 kilocalories per kilogram.
The Power Company, a solar photovoltaic (PV) installation and
monitoring firm,
says there were numerous benefits to the inclusion of
small-scale solar PV systems under the renewable energy feed-in
tariff (Refit). The industry has pushed the National Energy
Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) to consider including
small-scale PV systems in the second phase of the Refit.
Nersa’s Initial Refit included concentrated solar power (CSP),
wind power, small hydropower, and landfill gas technologies. It
was suggested that every home could install a PV system and
generate some 25 kWh or 30 kWh of power, and feed that back into
the national electricity grid, during off-peak times, when not
much power was needed domestically, but that could feed
industrial sources.
Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Urumqi, (Xinhua) is planning
to increase coal production capacity
by launching 139 large and medium-sized coal mines by 2010, it
is reported. The regional government of Xinjiang has approved
139 projects in building new coal mines and restructuring small
collieries in the 11th Five Year Plan period, which
is expected to bring joint annual output of 226 million tons as
the projects reach full operation. Xinjiang is estimated to
have about 2,190 billion tons of coal reserves, 40 percent of
China’s total. The coal output in Xinjiang reached nearly 67.7
million tons in 2008 and is expected to reach 80 million tons
this year and 100 million tons in 2010.
Korea Coal Corp. (KOCOAL) has signed a memorandum of
understanding (MOU) with three Korean engineering institutions,
including the Korea Institute of Machinery & Materials, for the
development of intelligent coal-mining robots in the science
complex in Daejeon. The robots will not only drill in mines but
will up-and offload coal onto conveyors for transportation, with
operators outside to control them remotely using a three
dimensional scanner attached at the back of the robots. The
robots could increase productivity by 30 percent by working
around the cloak and going deeper, which will reduce the risk of
human losses from conventional mining. If the project is
completed, robots will be put to use by 2013, after six months
of trial.
White Energy and PT Bayan Resources are now producing clean coal
briquettes at their plant in Indonesia.
Considered the world’s largest clean coal facility, White Energy
said the one million ton per year Binderless Coal Briquetting
plant in Tabang had begun producing – in line with the
commissioning schedule. The joint venture company, PT Kaltim
Supacoal, has been commissioning the plant for two months. Full
production is planned over the next few months.
A safety guard that prevents falls onto exposed longwall mine
conveyor belts, invented by BMA Coal’s Gregory Crinum mine,
took honors at the 2009 Queensland Mining Industry Health and
Safety Innovation Award. BMA’s Saraji mine won the people’s
choice award for its feeder blockage removal device, which
enables blockages under coal stockpile feeders to be cleared
remotely. Anglo Coal Australia’s Dawson mine was commended for
a work platform that provides better access to the CAT 797 haul
truck to enable maintenance to be carried out more safely.
Xstrata Coal has restarted production at its Oaky No. 1 longwall
mine in Queensland,
and is expected to continue through the end of the year. Oaky
No. 1 was reopened for short-term production to fill spot coking
coal contracts. About 230 jobs were lost when the mine closed
early this year because of weak coking coal demand.
The National Copper Corporation of Chile, Codelco, has ordered
seven Liebherr T 282 B diesel electric, AC drive mining trucks
for the open pit mine Radomiro Tomic. The 400 short ton payload
ultra class trucks will be equipped with MTU/DDC 20V4000 diesel
engines rated at 3,650 hp/2,722 kW and Michelin 56/80R63 low
profile tires. When delivered by the end of 2009, Codelco will
have 48 Liebherr mining trucks in operation at its projects.
Cockatoo Coal has sold its interest in an underground coal
gasification joint venture to Cougar Energy for 15 million
shares in Cougar.
Cockatoo and Cougar have agreed to retain rights to investigate
prospects for open cut and UCG-suitable resources in their
respective tenements in the Surat Basin.
Industrea has a $A3.1 million contract to deliver an Advanced
Mining Technologies
direction drilling and methane gas drainage system to the
Zhulinshan coal mine in China’s Shanxi Province. Located at
Jincheng, the Yang Cheng-owned mine produces about one million
tons of coal a year.
South Africa’s Highveld Steel & Vanadium expects to increase its
operational levels systematically
to full production during the latter part of this year, if
higher demand levels continue. The producer said that there
were signs of improved demand, particularly for steel, and that
the company would have to position itself to ensure that the
increased demand could be met in a profitable manner.
Coal India Ltd could invest some $1.5 billion to acquire mines
overseas to help fill a shortage of fuel
as the country expects to double power generation capacity by
2012. Coal India is seeking mines in Australia, South Africa,
the U.S., Indonesia and Mozambique with an annual capacity of 10
million to 15 million metric tons. Coal India has secured two
blocks in Mozambique that may hold a combined 1 billion metric
tons of thermal coal, along with some coking coal. Demand for
coal is estimated to reach 731 million tons a year by March
2012.
Shanxi province is consolidating its coal industry by reducing
the number of coal mines from 2,598 to 1,000.
The province’s 2,200 coal mining companies will be consolidated
into some 100 larger mines. The goal is for each consolidated
company to produce over three million tons of coal a year.
The Ukrainian government is providing sovereign loan guarantees
to develop and modernize coal mines and the re-equipment and
development of new longwalls.
Ukraine produces about 80 million tons of coal a year,
including 43.8 million tons of steam coal and 33.8 million tons
of coking coal.
Rio Tinto has hired 150 new coal mine workers at its Hail Creek
coal mine in Queensland.
Now that the coal markets are booming, says GM Andrew Woodley,
with the industry producing record tonnage, new jobs have been
created to strip back overburden, allowing it to increase
production.
China’s Baosteel has invested $285.6 million in Aquila Resources,
owners of Isaac Plains Mine, near Moranbah, as it pushes ahead
with the Eagle Downs Mine, expected to create up to 1,000 jobs.
Aquila now has access to Chinese financing, which will speed up
its projects in the Bowen Basin and in Western Australia and
South Africa. Through Aquila, Baosteel will have access to the
company’s iron ore, coal and manganese mines – ensuring a supply
of three crucial ingredients needed to make steel.
Shenhua Group Corp., Shanghai, plans to build coal strategic
reserves,
deep-water berths, and power generation projects in the
southeastern city of Fuzhou. The coal hub will be built in
Luoyuan Bay, a planned deep-water harbor area with hopes of
becoming a major bulk commodities port in southeastern China.
Vale SA and India’s Tata Steel Ltd are studying coal mining
possibilities in northern Mozambique’s northern Niassa province
in the Manhamba basin, which is estimated to have more than 3
million metric tons of coal reserves. In addition, coal
deposits in the Majune district are being studied.
China Shenhua Energy Co Ltd, Hong Kong, plans to invest $39.5
billion through 2013
to expand production capacity. The company expects to double
its annual capacity to 500 million tons in five years. Shenhua
plans to build strategic coal reserves of 30 million tons in the
eastern, southern and central parts of China. Shenhua is one of
ten bidders for what is known as the world’s biggest untapped
coking coal deposit with a reserve of 6.5 billion tons in the
Gobi Desert. Bidders include Peabody and BHP Billiton.
China Datang International Power Generation Co., Beijing, has
won government approval to build a $3.76 billion plant in Inner
Mongolia
to convert coal to gas. The plant, in Chi Feng city, would have
a production capacity of 4 billion cubic meters of gas per year
by 2012 with the first production scheduled to be completed by
the end of 2010 to produce 1.3 bcm per year. The plant will
also produce liquid oil, including naphtha.
ABB will supply its ACS 1000i variable speed drive system that
comes with integrated input transformers,
to be built at the Newcastle Infrastructure Group’s new
30-million tons-a-year terminal. The port project is the
largest single stage development of a new coal terminal of this
magnitude in the world. The drive set-up consists of 16
variable speed drives with 16.5 megawatts of installed power and
integrated transformers, and 16 3.3 kilovolt high-voltage
process performance motors. The variable speed drives will be
housed in six air-conditioned and dust-resistant transportable
rooms.
Waratah Coal’s China First Project is planned for the Galilee
Basin in Queensland
and will be the largest coal mine in Australia. The $5.15
billion thermal coal project will export 40 million tons per
year from the site near Alpha, about 1000 kilometers northwest
of Brisbane. It will include four underground longwalls and two
large open pits. China First Project has secured a long-term
supply contract with China Metallurgical Group Corporation (MCC).
Waratah Coal has started a feasibility study into building a low
emission,
billion dollar-plus, 900-megawatt coal-fired power station
adjacent to its China First project in Queensland’s Galilee
Basin. The first phase of the project will generate 450MW at a
cost of $1.25 billion while a second 450MW module is expected to
be added, as demand requires.
Synthesis Energy Systems, Inc., Houston, TX, and Yima Coal
Industry Group, Ltd have entered into a coal-to-energy strategy
using the U-GAS technology that processes low rank coal.
The project is strategically positioned as the first phase of a
series of projects which will form the Mazhuang Coal Chemical
Industrial Park – a planned $4.4 billion investment in Henan
Province, China. Yima will supply the coal for the project from
a nearby mine. The project will utilize the U-GAS technology of
SES which converts low grade high-ash coals into syngas and high
value downstream products. When completed, the project is
expected to have an annual capacity of 300,000 tons of refined
methanol. Two future coal gasification projects are planned for
this location. The second project is expected to add additional
capacity of 300,000 tons of refined methanol or methanol
equivalent products.
Southern Energy Company, Inc., Santiago, Chile, has begun
negotiations on a coal deposit located near Concepcion, Chile.
The deposit is near the company’s current coal operation in Lota
Bay. The move is a reaction to announcement of a major Korean
industrial company’s plans to develop a $2.5 billion coal-fired
electric generation plant in the Concepcion area.
Australia and China have signed a $41 billion energy pact that
includes the Gorgon Project,
the single biggest construction projects in Australia’s
history. PetroChina, Asia’s largest oil and gas company, will
buy 2.25 million tons annually of liquefied natural gas (LNG)
from Australia for the next 20 years. The gas will be drilled
from the yet-to-be developed Gorgon Gas Field on the northeast
coast of Western Australia. The Gorgon Project scope includes
three, five million tons per year LNG trains, one of the world’s
largest carbon dioxide injection projects; and a domestic gas
plant. It would generate some 6,000 jobs. Construction on
Barrow Island could begin later this year.
Firestone Energy and Sekoko Coal are in a joint venture to start
a small mining operation at the Waterberg coal project.
Plans are to produce at a rate of 60,000 t/m run-of-mine by the
end of the year, and expecting to yield between 30,000 t/m and
40,000 t/m of saleable coal. The small liming operation would
provide a starter pit for a large-scale 18-million tons a year,
expected to start up in 2011.
Vale is expecting to produce up to 12.7 million tons per year of
hard coking coal from its upcoming $1.3 billion Moatize open cut
mine
in Mozambique with plans to develop a 600-megawatt power station
at the mine mouth. The power station would enable 2.5Mt of
domestic thermal coal production in addition to 2.4Mt for export
markets each year. The first shipment is slated for 2011.
Moatize is Vale’s first Greenfield project in Africa and has
proven and probable reserves of 838Mt.
Idemitsu Kosan, a Japanese energy company, expects to triple
production from its Boggabri surface mine
in the New South Wales Gunnedah Basin to 4.3 million tons of
thermal coal by March 2014. The mine produced 1.5Mt since
2006. The first phase is targeting 2.5 Mtpa by the second half
of 2010.
Macquarie analysts have forecast that China will import 26Mt of
metallurgical coal in 2011 and by 2015 will be importing 36Mt.
For the rest of Asia, Macquarie expects metallurgical coal
demand to reach a total of 103Mt this year, 119Mt in 2010 and
156Mt by 2015. European demand was forecasts to be 49Mt this
year, 59Mt in 2010 and 71Mt by 2015. Analysts expect most of
the supply to come from Australia.
Riversdale Mining, Johannesburg, and JV partner, Elgas SARL,
have signed a framework agreement for development of a proposed
$1.3 billion mine-mouth,
coal-fired thermal power station, situated in Mozambique’s Tete
province near Riversdale’s Benga coal project. First phase of
the project would generate 500 MW of capacity by April 2013.
The plant could potentially be scaled up to 2,000 MW.
Australia’s total coal production is expected to increase by 30
percent over the next five years
to 450 million tons a year, compared with 350 million tons
today. Analysis of the 120 mines in operation and 13 set to
come on line by 2015 shows $23 billion will be invested in the
sector over this period. Coal is Australia’s most valuable
export, worth $54.6 billion last financial year.
NTPC has embarked on a $10 billion plan to expand capacity to
meet Asian demand.
NTPC plans to acquire a South African company for about $1
billion. NTPC is also looking for assets in Indonesia, South
Africa and Mozambique and appointed Australia’s Macquarie as
advisors for buying coal mines in Indonesia. NTPC is adding more
than 12,000 MW of capacity based on the fuel as part of the
nation’s plan to double electricity output by 2017. NTPC has
been allocated six coal blocks with estimated geological
reserves of more than 3 billion tons and an output potential of
48 million tpy.
GE Energy announces that the Kuwait Ministry of Electricity and
Water has signed a turnkey contract with GE and Hyundai Heavy
Industries
totaling $2.65 billion for a new 2,000 megawatt power plant in
Sabiya. When completed the plan will raise Kuwait’s power
capacity from current levels of around 11,000 MG. It is the
largest combined cycle power plant in Kuwait.
Baosteel Group, China’s largest steel mill, has agreed to invest
$240 million in Perth-based Aquila Resources,
giving it a 15 percent stake in the Australian miner. The two
companies will work towards establishing a joint sales
arrangement to assist in the distribution of the miner’s
products, including iron ore, coal and manganese, throughout
China.
TinCom has signed a co-operative agreement with Environment
Clean Technologies Limited
to build a coldry (dehydrated brown coal) plant with an annual
capacity of up to 100 million tons in Australia. The coal is
intended for export.
Can Tho Cement has approval to build an $11.2 million cement
factory
in the Phu Huu A industrial complex. The plant, to be named Can
Tho-Hau Giang Cement, will cover an area of 10ha and is expected
to produce 500,000 tpy.
Brazilian miner Vale has spent $300 million on the development
of the mine industrial complex at Moatize coal mine in
Mozambique,
and has increased estimates for coking coal production to 12.7
million tons a year in the first stage of development. The $1.3
billion project, which was expected to deliver its first coal to
the market in the first half of 2011, would produce about 2.4
million tons a year of export thermal coal and 2.5 million tons
a year of coal for a local power plant.
Sasol, Johannesburg, is studying the conversion of carbon
dioxide (CO2) into fuel.
Sasol’s technology division is working on algaeic forms of
methanol production and Singapore’s Institute of Bioengineering
and Nanotechnology report a CO2-to-methanol
breakthrough earlier this year. Sasol is working with several
universities in South Africa and around the world looking at
using biomass to supplement coal for conversion into synthetic
transportation fuels.
Northern Energy has revealed a 50-70 million ton exploration
target at the Maryborough hard coking coal project
after reviewing old drilling information, pushing development of
the $A40 million Queensland project to next year. The discovery
is a significant step towards development of the Colton mine,
now planned to start in the 2010 calendar year at a capital cost
of $40 million.
China has acquired 15 percent interest in Hong Kong’s Nobel
Group for almost $1 billion.
China Investment Corporation has agreed to buy 573 Nobel shares
for $850 million. The deal is conditional on definitive
agreements being signed, and approvals from boards and the
Singapore Exchange.
Cooperative Research Centre for Sustainable Resource Processing
(CSRP)
says the new Perth Bunbury Highway road network is helping to
pioneer the transformation of Australia’s mining residues. CSRP
is undertaking two trials, which are using treated mineral
residue for road base and nutrient filters. In the first trial,
more than 2,500 cubic meters of sand was extracted from bauxite
residue and used as road base to widen the Greenlands Road
access to the new highway near Pinjarra. The concept called
ReSand uses sand sourced from recovered materials to
conventionally sourced quarry sand. In the second trial, a
demonstration ‘nutrient trap’ has been installed by the side of
the new road that collects water run-off and removes nutrients
such as phosphates and nitrates, to help prevent algal blooms in
the surrounding waterways.
Marathon Tyres has appointed Industrea subsidiary Wadam
Industries as the Chinese distributor
for its rubber liner insertion machines and RL run flat tyre
inserts for use in underground coal mining vehicles. The
contract runs until September 2012. Industrea said the reusable
rubber inserts had internal honeycomb tubes of air, eliminating
he risk of flat tyres, increasing mileage and reducing the risk
of accidents.
Vale’s Carborough Downs mine in Queensland’s Bowen Basin is
producing coal,
as a new longwall mining system was successfully brought
online. The $A130 million longwall system is part of a $400
million expansion of the mine from a board and pillar operation
to longwall. The mine plans to produce 4.9 million tons per
year.
Metso will supply a complete crushing and screening system to
Norsk Stein’s Jelsa quarry expansion in Norway by June 2010,
valued at EUR 27 million. The order is comprised of four
gyratory cone crushers, eight series inclined screens, a stacker
conveyor, and a significant amount of conveyors. It also
includes the engineering, erection and project management of the
new plant. The quarry now exceeds 5 million tons a year and,
after the expansion, is expected to produce a total of more than
10 million tons a year.
BJD Crushers has supplied six BJD Hammermills to pulverize coal
at a new co-generation power plant being built in Western
Australia.
The crushers are part of a $500 million contract for the plant,
which will be built at the Worsley Alumina refinery, near
Collie. The powerhouse project at the refinery comprises two 340
t/h Circulating Fluidized Bed boiler units that will primarily
burn coal, but will also be able to burn up to 35 percent waste
wood product.
The Barnes Learning Group, Charleston, WV, has teamed up with
MindEdge, Inc.
to expand services and offer a series of new online programs to
organizations and working professionals worldwide. The new
courses are designed to allow professionals to improve their
skills online at their own convenience. All courses are
affordable, 100 percent web-based, in self-study format and
powered by an easy-to-use course delivery platform. Visit the
website at
www.barneslearning.com
Anglo American of London expects to double its production of
coal used for steel making by 2018
if all its projects are approved. Anglo’s seaborne
metallurgical coal output was 25 million tons last year with a
potential output rising to over 30 million tons a year by 2018.
Anglo’s potential output in seaborne thermal coal could grow to
over 50 million tons by 2018. Most of Anglo’s thermal coal
output is from South Africa, but it has operations in Colombia
and Australia as well.
Yancoal Australia’s Austar mine has received approval from the
New South Wales government to start Stage 3 expansion plans
to extract 3.5 million tons of run-of-mine coal per year, with
mining permitted to the end of 2030. Stage 3 covers longwall
blocks estimated to produce 45.3 Mt over a 21-year mine life.
Bloomfield colliery at East Maitland has approval to continue
mining and recover an additional 14 million tons
of run-of-mine coal. Bloomfield will recover the additional
tonnage at a rate of up to 1.3 Mt of ROM coal per year. The
mine is expected to continue to employ 66 workers for a further
12 years.
Anglo Coal has opened its coal handling and processing plant for
the Capcoal operations in Queensland’s Bowen Basin,
completing a $A850 million Lake Lindsay mine expansion. The
expansion is expected to increase the mine life by 20 years,
with around 75 million tons of saleable reserves in the area.
Lake Lindsay’s production is expected to reach 5 million tons a
year by 2010.
More than 250,000 China miners have died in coal mine accidents
since 1949,
according to the Sydney Morning Herald. Shanxi province has
produced more coal and suffered more coal mining deaths than
anywhere else in China. In the past 10 years the Chinese
government has launched mine-safety campaigns, but the
effectiveness has been diminished by corruption and cronyism.
Coal India Ltd, New Delhi, is considering investing in ports, as
local infrastructure
will be inadequate to meet an expected tenfold jump in its coal
imports in the next two to three years. The state-owned coal
mining monopoly expects its imports to rise to 40 million to 45
million metric tons from the current fiscal year’s estimate of 4
million tons.
South Africa’s Eskom plans to utilize renewable energy
from solar and wind sources and also to tap cleaner coal
technologies to reduce its carbon footprint, it is reported.
Eskom plans to replace old plants, which it will start
decommissioning from 2025, with more efficient technologies to
reduce its carbon dioxide emissions, now at 230 million tons.
The company is designing a 42-MW pilot plant to test a
technology to gasify deep coal deposits underground and feed the
gas into a combined cycle gas turbine. It expects a full-scale
(2 100 MW) plant to be running by 2015.
Anglo American and Energy Developments Limited (EDL) have opened
a $A60 million, 45-megawatt waste coal mine gas power station
at the Moranbah North mine in Queensland’s Bowen Basin, which
will generate enough electricity to power nearly 50,000 homes.
The plant uses waste gas from the Moranbah North operation to
fuel 15 engines of 3MW capacity, while reducing greenhouse gas
emissions by more than 1.3 million tons of carbon dioxide.
Puda Coal, Inc., Taiyuan, China, announces that its subsidiary
Shanxi Puda Coal Group Co., Ltd,
has received final approval to consolidate eight coal mines in
Shanxi Province. Shanxi Coal will consolidate into five mines,
increasing the total annual capacity from approximately 1.6
million to 3.6 million metric tons. Puda Coal possesses 3.5
million metric tons of annual coking coal cleaning capacity.
Shanxi Province provides 20-25 percent of China’s coal output
and supplies nearly 50 percent of China’s coke.
Denarii Resources Inc., Carson City, NV, has acquired two coal
concessions in Lota Bay, Chile,
subject to a satisfactory title opinion, in exchange for the
issuance of 10,000,000 common shares of the company. The two
coal concessions are located about 300 miles south of Santiago,
Chile. A drilling program showed total reserves of 565,000 tons
of recoverable bituminous thermal coal.
The Vietnam Coal and Mineral Group (Vinacomin) has permission to
explore coal mines in the Delta River
coal basin beginning in 2010. Vinacomin plans to develop the Red
River delta coal basin with coal reserves of about 210 billion
tons, 20 times more than in Quang Ninh Province.
The Czech Statistical Office reports industrial output declined
8.4 percent
on a yearly basis in August, much slower than a 18.2 percent
drop in the previous month. Mining and quarrying output dropped
6.9 percent on an annual basis, while manufacturing slipped 18.4
percent. Production of electricity was down 3.6 percent.
Construction output rose a seasonally adjusted 1.5 percent on a
monthly basis in August, and was up 0.6 percent at constant
prices from last year.
Parsons AFC Mining Chain is again available in the U.S.
The chain had been transferred from the United Kingdom to the
China Mining Equipment factory (CME), near Tianjin, China.
British engineers trained people at the CME facility in chain
technology and the art of manufacturing and heat treating of the
DIN, Xtra and COR-X chains that Parsons produces. Parsons Chain
is designed to mesh with modern AFC and BSL systems, Includes a
forged vertical line in its 38, 42 and 48 mm chain series to
extend chain life. E-mail at
George@ParsonsChain.com
Rio Tinto coal subsidiary Coal & Allied has logged its best
quarterly production
in almost three years after a revival in coking coal demand that
lapsed during the global downturn. C&A said third quarter coal
production rose 12 percent from the previous quarter to 6.77
million tons as it tripled semi-soft coal production at its
Hunter Valley operations in NSW to 1.14 million tons.
A public-private partnership (PPP) between the Central Energy
Fund and the National Empowerment Fund,
and private investors, such as Sasol and the University of
Johannesburg (UJ) has been set up to commercialize superthin
solar technology in South Africa and Germany. Thin Film Solar
Technology (TFST) has procured land in the Western Cape to build
a facility that will produce thin-film solar modules. A
production facility in Bradenburg, Germany, was completed in
2007.
Norwest Corporation, Salt Lake City, UT, has upgraded measured
and indicated coal resources contained in the Ovoot Tolgoi Mine
in southern Mongolia,
owned by South Gobi Energy Resources Ltd. Total proven and
probable surface coal reserves are estimated to be 114.1 million
tons. Approximately 92 percent of the reserves are classified in
the proven reliability or assurance category. Three coal
products are presently being mined or are expected to be mined
at Ovoot Tolgoi: a hard coking (or metallurgical) coal, a
premium coal with applications for PCI coking coal or a
high-quality thermal coal, and a thermal coal product for use in
power generation. |
