Pike River Coal Ltd said it will start in-seam exploration drilling of the Paparoa seam, which sits 200 metres below the Brunner seam it is mining, in the first half of next year.The company sees considerable potential in this deeper seam, but exploration
Pike River Coal Ltd said it will start in-seam exploration drilling of the Paparoa seam, which sits 200 metres below the Brunner seam it is mining, in the first half of next year.
The company sees considerable potential in this deeper seam, but exploration of it has been delayed by operational priorities at the mine on the West Coast.
In January 2009 an exploratory test drill hole into the Paparoa seam on the eastern side of the coal deposit found three potentially mineable seams of low sulphur hard coking coal. These seams totalled nine metres in thickness. The coal, once washed, had exceptionally high fluidity, as well as strong swelling numbers, low ash and low sulphur content.
In its annual report the company said two continuous miners purchased from mining equipment supplier Waratah Engineering had not operated to expectations and had required ongoing modifications.
They underwent track replacements and software upgrades, which did improve performance, but the machines were still operating well behind the required levels. The electric drives, which run the traction systems, will be replaced with hydraulic drives and the cutting head booms will be redesigned. This work will take two to three months for each machine.
Because of these problems Pike River leased one reconditioned ABM20 continuous mining machine for 12 months at the cost of $4 million, which began operating in August, and purchased a second ABM20 at the cost of $5 million, which will arrive in January.
The ABM20 is a single pass mining machine that can cut and bolt at the same time, reducing the production cycle when compared to the existing double pass machines.
