Wongawilli focuses on production restart

The care and maintenance team at Wollongong Coal’s Wongawilli coal mine is “well advanced on preparation and recommissioning works”, according to the company’s quarterly results statement, as it prepared to reopen the mine.

Extensive recommissioning has been completed on equipment at the mine, including continuous miners, shuttle cars, feeder breakers, auxiliary fans and the conveyor system, in order to allow production activities to begin in 3Q16.

The company has also appointed Delta SBD as the mine operator under a mining services agreement signed in July 2016. The agreement with Delta covers a period of 2 years and the extraction of 1.45 million t of coal, allowing Wollongong Coal’s management to focus on long-term planning for the future of the mine.

Wollongong Coal’s Russell Vale coal mine remains on care and maintenance with activities there focused on maintaining equipment operability and the underground environment. Equipment from Russell Vale has also been used to recommission Wongawilli in order to minimise costs.

Edited by Jonathan Rowland.

Read the article online at: https://www.worldcoal.com/mining/02082016/wongawilli-focuses-on-production-restart-2016-2137/