Grosvenor Underground Construction Manager Adam Foulstone said the team collaborated effectively with the contractor and the key to the outstanding increase in productivity came from lessons learned during the conveyor drift construction.
“From an industry perspective we have achieved the highest levels of collaboration and production through tunnelling, which provided a safer environment than conventional tunnelling methods.
“On our best production day we installed 18 concrete rings to support the tunnel, so about 25 metres, and our best week was 78 rings, or 110 metres,” Adam said.
A cause for celebration
The milestone was celebrated by members of the Grosvenor team and tunnelling contractor Red Path when the TBM broke through.
Coal CEO Seamus French congratulated the team for their outstanding efforts to drive the TBM through the second drift significantly ahead of schedule.
"This great result is down to the outstanding commitment of the team who came to grips with the new tunnel boring technology last year and applied our operating and engineering experience from underground mining to lift the TBM performance over the last 12 months.
"The use of this technology is a first not just for coal mining in Anglo American but for the Australian coal mining industry and the team can rightly feel proud that they are the pioneers of this new technology in coal.
"The team will keep building on the valuable lessons learned as they progress to the next project milestones including extraction of the TBM and commissioning of the longwall at the end of 2016."
Once extracted from the drift, the TBM will go into storage for future projects.
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