Eickhoff Bergbau GmbH

The Australian based Grasstree longwall operation, which is part of the Capcoal complex in the Bowen Basin of Central Queensland, has undergone a series of performance upgrades uplifting it back to delivering world leading longwall performance resulting in over 9 mt of coal cut from a single longwall in the preceding year of 2017.

Here, since 2007 an Eickhoff SL 750 shearer loader (Figure 1) is cutting its way through the 2,8 m seam at a panel width of 340 m. The high availability delivered by the shearer averages considerably more than 95 % and state-based and automation operations enable highest performance while automation features keep staff out of harm´s way.

The coking coal produced in this operation is mainly used for steel production overseas and transported by rail directly to vessels on the Dalrymple bay coal terminal.

Eickhoff´s SL 750 range is fully equipped with advanced automation features which enable coal producers to continually break world records on a monthly and annual basis. This machine has proven itself to be a reliable backbone in longwall operations worldwide and is also highly favoured by Australian mines.

Eickhoff´s subsidiary Eickhoff Australia Pty Ltd. is the sales and distribution hub for machines, parts and service in Australia. A new and bigger workshop for shearer overhauls is under construction in New South Wales. Further supporting stores and offices for short lead times of services and spare parts are located close to the mines in all Australian coal fields. Currently Eickhoff Australia is preparing a new SL 750 shearer loader designated to go underground at Glencore´s Ulan No. 3 mine exchanging an older Eickhoff SL 500 shearer and by that delivering a leap in technology in regards to automation functionality, user friendliness and high production outcomes.

Since its foundation in 1864 Eickhoff has been specialized in underground coal and potash mining equipment. Today, Eickhoff is a successful German based global supplier of longwall shearers and continuous miners, providing the world wide mining community with more than 50 machines every year.

Further information:
Eickhoff Bergbautechnik GmbH
www.eickhoff-international.com

Under the slogan “Thanks to German Coal for 153 Years of Solidarity”, Eickhoff Bergbautechnik GmbH, Bochum/Germany, delivered an SL 750 shearer loader to RAG Aktiengesellschaft on 13th July 2017 (Figure 1).

The Bochum-based manufacturer’s high-power machines have been used in German mines since the beginning of last century, when underground coal mining became mechanised. From that point on, they have assisted miners in extracting domestic “black gold” whilst helping mining sites to continuously improve safety and productivity.

The close, trusting collaboration – which has lasted for decades – between the German coal mining group and the family-owned machinery manufacturer in the heart of the Ruhr region has fostered the development of this reliable, sophisticated machinery. Shearer loaders are now the general, proven standard for all high-output faces in major coal regions around the world. In particular, Eickhoff shearer loaders enjoy an outstanding global reputation when it comes to safety and reliability.

The Eickhoff SL 750 yellow giant is as heavy as 50 mid-range cars (96 t), can extract a seam the same height as a two-storey building (5 m) and has a total installed power equivalent to seven of the most powerful Unimogs ever built (1,534 kW) (Figure 2). This means it can cut and load 1,500 lorry-loads (40,000 t) of coal every day.

The modern, high-tech equipment of this type of extraction machine guarantees safety while mining, the lowest possible impact on staff and increased production, while avoiding any unwanted cutting of the surrounding rock. The technology includes radar sensors to avoid collisions and to determine the section actually cut, vibration sensors and complex analysis software for status diagnostics and need-based maintenance work, vibration monitoring for detecting the interface between coal and the surrounding rock, special cameras for control and monitoring from a safe distance and automatic modes that can be freely selected by the operator. In automatic mode, the shearer loader moves and cuts autonomously, allowing the operator to stay in the fresh air at all times.

Although the mining machine delivered on 13th July looks new, it is largely made up of reconditioned and refurbished components. For this, the Eickhoff Service team broke the machine down into its individual units, checked them and repaired them in line with Eickhoff’s quality standards. To guarantee that underground mining could start smoothly, Eickhoff and RAG experts assembled and tested the machine together in Eickhoff’s assembly facilities. Then the machine was dismantled and transported underground. The last shearer loader used in Germany will help the miners at operating panel 124 on the Zollverein seam of the Prosper-Haniel mine in Bottrop until the mine closes for good in 2018 as the result of a political decision. The ceremonial handover of this shearer loader marked the start of the last chapter in the German coal mining industry (Figure 3).

Eickhoff has been closely associated with coal mining since its foundation. It initially only supplied machines in Germany, but has done so internationally too since the early 20th century. After growing on the back of German coal, Eickhoff has developed into a broad-based, internationally successful group over the last few decades, with 2,000 specialists worldwide. Its range of products and related local customer service not only cover mining machinery, but now also include robust industrial gear units, high-tech gearboxes for wind turbines, special locomotives and underground rail transport solutions. (Eickhoff/Si.)

The steady success story of the growing population of high performance shearer loaders of Eickhoff Bergbautechnik GmbH, Bochum/Germany, in Bosnia is backed by two new orders from the region. The path into a new generation of high performance mining with top-of-the-line equipment was already paved some years back when the two mines Breza and Banovice from Bosnia each decided to install high-performance shearer loaders of the type Eickhoff SL 300.

The current fleet of six Eickhoff SL shearers spread over the entire Balkan region is now supplemented by two additional high performance shearer loaders SL 300, which define the global standard for KPI and Life Cycle Costs in low- and medium-high longwall faces. A recent delivery went to the customer Kakanj in Bosnia while in September 2016 a further contract was signed with the customer Zenica where the shearer will be deployed to its Raspotocje mine (Figure 1). Both of these new projects will be carried out with Eickhoff´s long term cooperating partner Becker Warkop of Poland, which is acting as the main project partner, delivering the full longwall setup.

Further projects and orders are visible and Eickhoff is confident to remain the top supplier of world-class equipment into the region, thus empowering domestic energy producers on their road to success in delivering independent and reliable energy from domestic sources.

Further information:
Eickhoff Bergbautechnik GmbH
www.eickhoff-bochum.de

South Africa’s coal industry is the largest in Africa and boasts with the continent’s largest recoverable coal reserve and coal production base. South Africa mined about 260 mt of coal in 2014 which makes it part of the global top ten coal producers. Approximately 75 % of the South African coal produced is utilised locally whereas the balance is exported mainly via the Richards Bay Coal Terminal. About 80 % of South Africa’s power generation comes from coal. The state-owned utility Eskom operates thirteen coal fired power stations with two additional power stations currently under construction and to be integrated into the local power grid soon.

One of Eskom’s suppliers of coal is the South African large mining house Exxaro with its recently established coal branch Exxaro Coal Central (ECC). This major player in the African coal industry has a long history of mining with roots dating back to the state owned mining company Iscor established in 1928. Today, Exxaro is JSE-listed and broad-based black owned and managed. Besides its local sales it is one of the largest exporters of coal in South Africa (2014). Current coal production levels of ECC equates to approximately 3,9 mt/a which is mined from one managed open cast and two underground operations.

ECC runs a met coal operation at the Dorstfontein Complex. It is located 30 km South of Emalahleni at the Northern part of the Highveld Coal field. The Dorstfontein Complex comprises of its open cast East operations as well as the underground West operations. In 2015, Dorstfontein-West mined the lower number 2 seam at an annual production of 700,000 t ROM (Run of Mines). Currently there are three Continuous Miner (CM) sections and one drill and blast section in operation.

One of the three CM at Dorstfontein-West is an Eickhoff CM2H-30 (Figure 1). The modern CM2-Series Continuous Miners from Eickhoff Bergbautechnik GmbH, Bochum/Germany, are very popular in tough low seam mining applications. Apart from the CM2H-30 model, Eickhoff has fourteen CM currently operational in the market which also includes the CM2H-37 and CM2H-45 models.

During the second half of 2015, the CM2H-30 machine arrived at Dorstfontein-West on a trial basis. This low profile CM prevailed in ECC’s challenging conditions. With this the mine decided to buy the South African-German jointly engineered and manufactured CM. Since then, this drum type cutter has been exceeding its individual targets set by the mine.

Further information:
Eickhoff Bergbautechnik GmbH
www.eickhoff-bochum.de

The Australian listed coal mining company Universal Coal plc (UC) started its underground production at the New Clydesdale Colliery (NCC) in September 2016. NCC is located about 30 km south of Emalahleni in the Witbank coal area of South Africa’s Mpumalanga province. The South African focused coal mining company acquired NCC from Exxaro in 2014. UC’s Roodekop open cast operation is situated contiguous in the south of the NCC premises so that both operations now benefit from synergies. UC announced that during the first phase of operations taking place in the Diepspruit underground area, NCC has a production target of 900,000 t/a ROM (Run of Mines) of export quality thermal coal.

UC awarded a mining operation contract for New Clydesdale to the Ermelo based mining contractor STA Coal Mining Company (Pty) Ltd. (STA). STA started operations over 10 years ago with a Continuous Miner (CM) of Eickhoff Bergbautechnik GmbH, Bochum/Germany. This CM is still cutting coal in a mine near Piet Retief. STA focuses on offering quality coal extraction services by using advanced technology and by focusing their operations to achieve this goal. Their coal extraction services are diversified enabling them to deal with the challenges that various seam heights and geological conditions offer.

Upon the expansion of their operations through UC’s NCC operations, STA now invested in another Eickhoff CM2H-30 CM that is capable of mining between 1.5 to 3.0 m (Figure 1). This CM will support the production targets that STA must achieve and has started production during the third week of September 2016.

Eickhoff is proud to support STA in South Africa. Eickhoff’s local subsidiary ensures services of highest standards by focusing on parts availability and supply, maintenance support, training, repair and rebuild strategies and the execution thereof, condition monitoring and by forging strong relationships with STA and other customers. The South African team backed by the German mother company is 100 % committed to support STA and Universal Coal with the opening of the NCC operations.

Further information:
Eickhoff Bergbautechnik GmbH
www.eickhoff-bochum.de