Just after midnight on Tuesday 10 February, 160 metres below the ground, Anglo American’s Grosvenor team saw the spectacular entrance of the tunnel boring machine (TBM) as it broke through to complete the people and equipment tunnel for the new underground mine near Moranbah in the Bowen Basin.

Grosvenor is Anglo American’s $1.9 billon flagship underground longwall mine which will produce approximately five million tonnes of coking coal for exports once operational in 2016.

Anglo American is the first mining company to use a TBM to construct an underground mining tunnel in Queensland as the shift the TBM tunnelling provides a safer and more efficient environment.

The people and equipment tunnel will be the road into the mine and is the second tunnel constructed with the TBM at Grosvenor. The conveyor tunnel, completed late last year, will house the equipment to move coal from the longwall underground to the stockpile and washing facilities above ground.

The TBM’s recent breakthrough at Grosvenor came 29 days ahead of schedule with the team able to rein in the construction timeframe through applied learnings and knowledge from the conveyor tunnel construction last year. The conveyor tunnel was 980 metres long and took five months to tunnel, while the people and equipment tunnel stretched 1100 metres and has been completed in only three months.

Anglo American’s Grosvenor Underground Construction Manager Adam Foulstone said the team worked in seamless collaboration and the key to the outstanding increase in productivity came from lessons learned and applying those with a drive to exceed past performance.

“From an industry perspective we have achieved the highest levels of collaboration and production through tunnelling which provided a safer environment than conventional tunnelling methods.

“On our best production day we installed 18 concrete rings, which was 25 metres, and our best week was 78 rings, or 110 metres,” Adam said.

The milestone was celebrated by members of the Grosvenor team and tunnelling contractor Red Path when the TBM broke through.

Anglo American Coal CEO Seamus French congratulated the team at Grosvenor for their outstanding efforts to drive the TBM through the second tunnel significantly ahead of schedule.

"This great result is down to the outstanding commitment of the team who came to grips with the new tunnel boring technology last year and applied our operating and engineering experience from underground mining to lift the TBM performance over the last 12 months.

"The use of this technology is a first not just for coal mining in Anglo American but for the Australian coal mining industry and the team can rightly feel proud that they are the pioneers of this new technology in coal.

"The team will keep building on the valuable lessons learned as they progress to the next project milestones including extraction of the TBM and commissioning of the longwall at the end of 2016."

Once extracted from the drift, the TBM will go into storage for future use on other Anglo American projects as required.

ENDS

Contact: Jacqui Strambi – 0439 774 526

Notes to editors:

Anglo American is a global and diversified mining business that provides the raw materials essential for economic development and modern life. Our people are at the heart of our business. It is our people who use the latest technologies to find new resources, plan and build our mines and who mine, process and move and market our products – from bulk commodities and base metals to precious metals and diamonds (through De Beers) – to our customers around the world. Our diversified portfolio of products spans the economic development cycle and, as a responsible miner, we are the custodians of precious resources. We work together with our key partners and stakeholders to unlock the long-term value that those resources represent for our shareholders, but also for the communities and countries in which we operate – creating sustainable value and making a real difference. Our mining operations, growth projects and exploration and marketing activities extend across southern Africa, South America, Australia, North America, Asia and Europe.

www.angloamerican.com.au