University of New South Wales

School of Mining Engineering

Prepared for

Dr Serkan Saydam

Mine 8150

Mine Design and Feasability

Major Assignment

Prepared by

David G Rolph

3309524

Thursday, 8 September 2011

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Summary

Huntley and Avondale Collieries are existing underground mines in the Illawarra coal fields of New South Wales. Both mines are on care and maintenance at present but with an improved financial outlook, the existing infrastructure and the location of the mines in relation existing coal mining infrastructure, an opportunity to reopen the mines is available. A financial model for the reopening of the mines based on provided economic conditions, historical …show more content…
NRE purchased Avondale CCL 766 and the unmined portion of the Huntley CCL700 from HTT Huntley Heritage Pty Ltd, forming a new lease area now know as ML 1565 (NSW Minerals Council URL).

1 Mining Process and Systems

A schematic diagram of present Huntley and Avondale mining processes and management procedures can be seen in Figure 1. The mining process can be broken up into the inputs, processes and outputs. There are two key processes directly relating to the coal mining process; the physical mining and the management measures used to control these activities. Management involves both the technical aspects and the physical control of the mining processes. It is assumed that there will be no major alterations in the choice of equipment and mining methods that are already undertaken, other than continuous improvement principals.

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Figure 1 Huntley Avondale Mining Processes

2 Mining Operations

The key processes discussed above focus on improving the effectiveness of mining large quantities of coal in the most efficient manner. An explanation of the Huntley/Avondale bord and pillar mining method is included the following section.

1 Bord and Pillar Mining

Bord and Pillar mining is an established mining method that has been used successfully to mine horizontal or near horizontal deposits, such as found in the Huntley / Avondale coal seams. In bord and pillar mining openings are driven with