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Central Colliery

Central Colliery, constructed in 1984, has ranked consistently over the past 10 years as one of Australia’s most productive longwall mining operations and has an annual production capacity of 2.3 million tonnes.

Central Colliery extracts coal from the German Creek seam. The seam averages 2.5 metres thick. Access roads or gateroads are developed to provide access for the equipment. Blocks are 2.5 kilometres long and 230 metres wide containing in excess of 1.9 million tonnes of coal. Central Colliery’s retreat longwall operations have a rated capacity of 2000 tonnes per hour.

The majority of coal is won by a retreating longwall with the remainder produced by three continuous miners developing longwall gateroads and main headings.

Roof support is provided by 153 electro-hydraulically controlled, four-leg Joy Chock Shield Supports, rated at a maximum support resistance of 800 tonnes.

Coal is cleared by a Joy Face Conveyor, powered by a two-speed motor at each end giving a total installed power of 1044 kilowatts. A Klockner-Becorit crusher, with a capacity of 2500 tonnes per hour for an output size of 200 millimetres, feeds product to a Joy beam stage loader, which loads coal to a panel belt rated at 2000 tonnes per hour.

Coal from Central Colliery is hauled by truck to the Coal Handling and Preparation Plant.