Blair Athol cuts emissions, saves money

A series of improvements at Blair Athol Mine have improved efficiency, saved money and reduced greenhouse gas emissions by 6500 tonnes per year – the same as taking 1190 cars off the road.

These savings have been recorded by the coal handling and preparation plant (CHPP) and dragline teams, thanks to cross team collaboration.

“We calculated that to work efficiently at the coal plant, we need to process a minimum of 2100 tonnes of coal through the plant per hour, known as the ‘feed rate’,” coal plant superintendent John Robinson said.

“To meet this minimum feed rate, we improved our communications with the teams out in the pit who now warn us when they are experiencing delays so we can stop the CHPP machinery should the feed rate drop too low.

“We have also worked with maintenance crews to remove many of the bottlenecks in the plant, for example by upgrading parts.”

These improvements mean the CHPP now uses 1.2 kilowatt hours of energy per tonne of coal crushed compared to 1.4 kilowatt hours used in 2006, resulting in a saving of 2200 tonnes of greenhouse gas equivalents per year.

Back in the pit, the dragline team has cut energy use from 1.28 kilowatt hours per bank cubic metre used in 2006 to just 0.96 kilowatt hours used today, saving 4300 tonnes of greenhouse gas equivalents per year.

“Our dragline was commissioned in 1982, so we recently upgraded the motors, strengthened the ropes and mast and brought in a new digital control system,” dragline planner Pat Lonergan said.

“We have also reworked the bucket and rigging configuration to reduce the amount of steel and increase the amount of dirt in each bucketload so we are not wasting energy.

“Finally, we are using a mine modelling software called 3DDig, which provides three dimensional simulation and animation to ensure we are moving dirt in the most efficient way.”

Blair Athol Mine general manager operations Andrew Cole congratulated the coal plant, pit, and maintenance teams on their efforts and thanked superintendent environment and closure, Darren Springer, for collating the data.

“Part of the way we work is to always look for better and smarter ways to do things, and these improvements are great examples of how step changes can have big results,” Andrew said.

“The best thing about these achievements is they show that looking after the environment and improving our operational effectiveness can go hand in hand, helping us to build a more sustainable business.”

Pictured: Blair Athol Mine coal handling and preparation plant and dragline energy consumption by year.

Pictured: Blair Athol Mine now uses software called 3DDig to help operate the dragline effectively.