Coal Extraction to Resume at Spring Creek Underground Mine

3 May 2011

Coal Extraction to Resume at Spring Creek Underground Mine

Coal extraction at Spring Creek Underground Mine, near Greymouth, is due to resume in the morning. Mine operator, Solid Energy, says an incident at the mine on Friday evening had delayed the start-up by about 48 hours.

In that incident, a small fire started on an underground front-end loader being driven out of the mine, which was quickly extinguished by the machine operator. Solid Energy’s Chief Operating Officer, Barry Bragg, says the workforce was brought out of the mine and as a precaution the mine’s other loader machines were stood down and inspected. The Mines Inspector was notified.

Mr Bragg says the mine’s emergency procedures worked well and Solid Energy is confident the mine is operating safely.

Spring Creek Mine’s safety improvement programme

Coal production at Spring Creek has been minimal since early November last year, when the mine’s monitoring systems identified signs of spontaneous combustion in two areas. At the time, the workforce was evacuated for a short period. Although development work (the process of preparing areas of coal for mining) resumed, coal extraction was put on hold while these incidents were fully investigated.

The first explosion at Pike River Mine took place later that month. While the Pike River response involved a number of Solid Energy personnel and equipment from Spring Creek, it was the spontaneous combustion incidents within Spring Creek which led to the decision by the mine’s management to undertake a full safety review to further improve safety within the operation.

Barry Bragg says, “The decision to undertake this comprehensive safety review was Solid Energy’s alone. The review has been thorough and wide-ranging. The Spring Creek team identified a number of improvements – for instance, automating checks which had been done manually – which were reviewed and supported by independent experts and which have now been fully implemented.

“As a result, full-scale mine development at Spring Creek restarted in late February and the return to full coal extraction is set to resume tomorrow. Spring Creek’s workforce of 200 has been fully employed throughout this time – the mine was never closed.

“Our aim with the review, the resulting improvements and staff training has been to further improve the safety of this operation,” Mr Bragg says. “The standard we are aiming for is world’s best practice.”

Solid Energy has kept its Spring Creek workforce informed throughout and remains confident that its operations are being carried out in a safe manner. The Department of Labour’s draft findings following its recent inspection of the mine did not identify any safety issues.

Spring Creek Mining Company is a joint venture between Solid Energy and Cargill. Solid Energy operates the mine on behalf of the joint venture. The mine employs approximately 200 mineworkers, tradespeople and professional specialists and provides regular work for a range of contractors and service providers. Spring Creek’s high-energy semi-soft coking coal is supplied to West Coast and upper South Island industrial customers and is exported through Lyttelton Port of Christchurch for use in steelmaking.

ENDS

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