• Cutting roadways “headings” in the form of tunnels out into the area to be mined.
• These tunnels or roadways are driven in pairs which are joined every 130m by roadways between them called cut-through’s.
• These roadways in the underground workings fill several requirements including:
• • Transport roads for machine access in and out of the mine
  • Conveyor roadways that contain the conveyors that transport the coal to the surface after it has been mined.
  • These roadways also provide access for power, services and most importantly, ventilation which provides clean, breathable air to coal mine workers while they work at the coal face.

The development mining is the process of building these roadways for the future development of the mine; it is a critical task as it allows for the infrastructure and services to be installed for the extraction of the coal seam by Longwall.

• Kestrel is a single Longwall Mine, the Longwall is 415m wide, and up to 3.5 km long, Kestrels Longwall has peak production of over 1 million tonnes a month.
• The 198 shields hold up the ground around the coal seam allowing Longwall to move through the layer of ground that makes up the coal seam; the ground then falls behind the shields.

• Belt conveyors at Kestrel are capable of conveying 3,500 tonnes per hour; the coal is transported to the surface where it is deposited directly to the preparation plan.

Continuous Miners, Sandvik MB650 bolter miner, is used in the development panels. The MB470 is a bolter miner which can cut whilst simultaneous bolting roof and ribs. This continuous miner can achieve up to 7 m/per hour of fully developed roadway.

Joy Shuttle Cars, shuttle cars are capable of transporting up to 15 tonnes coal at a time from the continuous miner to the belt conveying system.

Longwall Equipment,

Caterpillar Shearer: EL3000 Shearer is capable of mining up to 3000 tonnes per hour, it is a modern longwall shearer which can be run in automation allowing for roof and floor to be cut consistently during extraction.

Caterpillar AFC and BSL, which is rated at 3500 tonnes per hour and provides the conveyance system for the coal cut by the Longwall shearer. The AFC and BSL conveyor the coal from the Longwall face to the belt conveyor system, the BSL also contains a crusher which sizes the coal for transport to the surface via the belt conveyor system.

Longwall shields – Caterpillar shields are used in the Longwall are rated at 1250 tonnes each, with 198 x 2m shields making up the current face configuration with three extra shields that are used as spares for use in in the E-Frame during longwall moves.