Today the Minister for Natural Resources and Mines, Andrew Cripps, joined with Anglo American’s Head of Underground Operations, Glen Britton, at Moranbah North mine in Moranbah to spend a ‘day in the life’ of a coal mine Site Senior Executive before touring the adjacent $1.95 billion Grosvenor project under construction.
Donning the required personal protective safety gear and travelling about 250 metres beneath the earth’s surface at Moranbah North mine, Minister Cripps saw the impressive longwall, which cuts across a 300 metre wide and 4.5 metre tall coal face and met some employees who spend 12 hours a day working underground.
“Given the significance of this industry to the people of Queensland, it was very important for me to come to Moranbah today, meet with employees and truly experience what it is like to work in this environment,” Mr Cripps said.
“Maintaining world’s best mine safety and health standards is a number one priority for the Newman Government.
“Today’s visit allows me to see first-hand the safety procedures in place here at Moranbah that have led to a considerable improvement in safety,” he said.
Moranbah North has delivered an 80 per cent reduction in their total recordable case frequency rate and an 83 per cent in their first aid case frequency rate since 2011.
After spending around four hours at Moranbah North, the Minister then travelled across to Anglo American’s Grosvenor project site, a new underground longwall mine under construction in Moranbah that will begin operation in 2016.
“Grosvenor was the first project I approved as Minister and it is fantastic to see the progress underway and the 700 new construction jobs that have been created on this project in just 1.5 years,” Mr Cripps said.
“The project has an excellent safety record and has targeted regional contractors throughout the tendering process, meaning the project’s benefits are being shared with local businesses.”
Anglo American’s Grosvenor site manager Greg O’Donnell said in a Queensland coal industry first, a tunnel borer similar to those used on the road projects in Brisbane would be used to carve out the two one-kilometre long tunnels (drifts) required on the project, one for the coal conveyor and one for people and equipment access into the mine.
“The Anglo American team is excited to be pioneering this innovative tunnelling method which will deliver advances in safety, higher quality tunnels (drifts) and faster project development,” Mr O’Donnell said.
“The $40 million machine is under assembly on site and will be ready to break ground next month, allowing us to reach the coal seam by December this year, bringing us that step closer to longwall production in late 2016,” he said.
“Once in operation, Grosvenor will produce around five million tonnes of hard coking coal per year and create more than 350 permanent jobs.”
ENDS
For further information, please contact:
Metallurgical Coal Corporate Affairs (Australia):
Jacqui Strambi: +61 439 774 526
Notes to editors:
Anglo American is one of the world’s largest mining companies, is headquartered in the UK and listed on the London and Johannesburg stock exchanges. Our portfolio of mining businesses meets our customers’ changing needs and spans bulk commodities – iron ore and manganese, metallurgical coal and thermal coal; base metals and minerals – copper, nickel, niobium and phosphates; and precious metals and minerals – in which we are a global leader in both platinum and diamonds. At Anglo American, we are committed to working together with our stakeholders – our investors, our partners and our employees – to create sustainable value that makes a real difference, while upholding the highest standards of safety and responsibility across all our businesses and geographies. The company’s mining operations, pipeline of growth projects and exploration activities span southern Africa, South America, Australia, North America, Asia and Europe.
www.angloamerican.com.au