A Publication Dedicated To Coal People

                          Coal People Magazine 


























 

worldwide news
   

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.