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Getting Coal Out

First coal truck leaves mine

Parallel slurry and water pipe on the access road

In the early stages of production, coal was taken out by truck from the mine face to the coal preparation plant, 10 kilometres away at the foot of the Paparoa Ranges.

That was to allow time for mining staff to extend the operational area in the pit bottom and install the underground infrastructure and equipment necessary for moving up to one million tonnes of coal a year.

That equipment included the flumes and slurry pipes, power and water, and other infrastructure necessary to transport the coal by pipeline direct to the coal preparation plant.

The coal is now being piped out of the mine downhill to the coal preparation plant in a water-fed coal slurry, partly aided by gravity and partly by pump.

The water used to feed the slurry pipe is cleaned and pumped back uphill to the mine face in a parallel pipe for reuse in a continuous recycling process. That means coal is being extracted without the use of surface conveyer belts or heavy coal trucks.

For the environment, the recycling slurry pipe process means less use of water, little noise, less dust, and a smaller footprint for the access road through the original bush.