Yorkshire based motor manufacturer ATB Morley aid Australian Xstrata coal mine to set new longwall records.

Newlands Northern underground mine in the Bowen basin, Queensland, Australia, is the new record –holder for weekly and monthly production from longwall operations. In May 2009, the mine extracted 961,891 tonnes from the longwall, beating Beltana’s previous record of 955,049 tonnes set in November 2005.

Both mines are operated by Xstrata coal with mining motors engineered and manufactured by ATB Morley in Yorkshire whose International Trade efforts were recognised earlier this year with a Queens Award for Enterprise: International Trade 2009.

The Newlands Northern mine that produces export thermal coal from underground and open –cut  also took the weekly record away from Beltana with production of 251,720 tonnes in a single week ending 5 May 2009. Beltana still holds the daily record but Newlands came close last month with a peak daily output of 45, 935 tonnes from the longwall.

The Newlands longwall is equipped with ATB Morley’s Bucyrus EL3000 shearers which have installed power of 1590kW and cutting power of 2 x 650 kW.
The shearer has a jumbotrack 2000 haulage system with haulage power of 2 x 125KW and is fully automation –capable. The longwall is equipped with 147 2-leg roof supports with a yield load of 1040 tonnes with a working range of 3 – 5m. The face conveyer is a Bucyrus PF4, 1332mm wide with a 42mm twin inboard chain with 2 x 855 kW CST drives.

The longwall is controlled by Bucyrus PM 4 controllers, with the 400 kW PF4/1532 coal crusher and 400 kW SK11/18 beam stage loader also from Bucyrus, manufactured at ATB Morley’s 200 strong factory in Yorkshire.

ATB Morley is wholly owned by the Austrian ATB Antriebtechnik which itself is owned by ATEC Industries, headquartered and Stock Exchange listed in Vienna.