Case Studies

Celtic Miners in Action

Solid Energy New Zealand

State-owned Solid Energy New Zealand Ltd is the country's biggest coal producer, extracting and processing more than four million tonnes a year from its seven underground and opencast mines.

After an extensive worldwide desktop search to find suitable machines, Solid Energy mining managers visited Metal Innovations in Wales and ordered a modified six-tonne CM4500 and linked systems for its Huntly East mine near Hamilton, North Island.

Solid Energy said "The new machine was chosen for its ability to create narrow tunnels and to work at the greater 250 – 330 metre depths regularly experienced at the Huntly mine.

"Modifications such as an off-board control box, more powerful engine and prototype cutting boom that gives better coal clearance, were made by the Metal Innovations team to customise the machine to East Mine's specific needs. Early performance has been good with the Celtic Miner achieving rates consistent with expectations."

 

UK Coal – Daw Mill Colliery

The CM system has also been used by UK Coal to keep open a retreat gate on one of Europe's biggest coal faces at Daw Mill colliery near Coventry.

The company said it made a big difference to their 'dinting' operations – the constant need to remove material in a retreat gate badly affected by floor heave.

In some parts the headroom had reduced to just 1.5 metres, making it impossible to use large, conventional machinery. The company put in a CM4500 with a powerful 300 diameter cutting head with 20 picks, combined with a 0.5 cubic metre digging bucket on the end of a 180 degree articulated arm.

UK Coal said to maintain the route to access the face would normally have taken two or three men working every shift, but the CM4500, operated by one man, did the same job in about a third of the time. The company has since ordered a general purpose conveyor from MI.

 

Costain

International construction and engineering group Costain also used a CM4500 on tunnelling work in connection with a £16m water project beneath Hampton Park for Thames Water in London.

The MI workshops adapted the Miner for the specific needs of the job. However it soon became clear that a different method of clearing the material was going to be needed.

Following discussions with Costain, MI arranged delivery to site of the company's Celtic Miner conveyor system and tracked material transporter, custom-made to work with the CM4500, which helped speed up the whole process.

Costain subsequently hired a CM4500 to work on a tunnelling project as part of another water and sewerage project in Brighton.

 

National Coal Mining Museum for England

Funded by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, the National Coal Mining Museum for England is located at Caphouse Colliery, on the western edge of the Yorkshire coalfield, where mining has been carried out for centuries. Visitors can go 450ft down one of the oldest working mines in England.

The Museum needed to create extra exhibition galleries for visitors underground. The contract was won by AMOCO – Amalgamated Construction Ltd who brought in a Celtic Miner 4500 because, among other attributes, it can be dismantled and reassembled underground.

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