Rod Bridges tells Andrew Pelis about the changes he has implemented at the Curragh mine and how these have resulted in big savings.
Global demand for coal continues apace, with mining companies across Australia enjoying something of a boom period. For a business like Wesfarmers Curragh, the key has been to implement cost-effective mining processes to make the most of buoyant market prices.
Wesfarmers Curragh is owned by Wesfarmers Limited, a publicly-listed company on the Australian Stock Exchange. Wesfarmers Curragh is a significant Australian open-cut miner that has grown into one of the leading metallurgical coal producers in the country.
The Curragh mine was originally established 27 years ago by North American mining company Arco, but was purchased by Wesfarmers back in 2000. At the time, the company felt there existed a strong possibility of coal price increases and the asset was well-valued.
The Curragh mine covers an area of approximately 12,600 hectares in the coal-rich Bowen Basin of central Queensland 14 kilometres north-west of the town of Blackwater and 200 kilometres west of Rockhampton. Wesfarmers also owns and operates the Premier Coal mine in Western Australia and has a 40 per cent interest in the Bengalla coal mining joint venture in the Hunter valley of New South Wales. Having sufficient reserves of coal that are relatively easy to mine, however, is not enough on its own, so executive general manager Rod Bridges has brought in some major changes.
“We currently supply around 6.5 million tonnes of metallurgical coal to major global steel manufacturers and produce a further three million tonnes of steaming coal for the domestic energy market,” says Bridges. “We operate an open cut mine and remove the overburden, mine the coal, wash it through a preparation plant (onsite) and transport it 300 kilometres by rail to the Port of Gladstone, where it is shipped to our overseas customers.”
Bridges, a fully qualified civil engineer, joined Wesfarmers Curragh three and a half years ago, but had worked in a variety of mining situations for ores that were hard rock or soft rock and in varying conditions, both onshore and offshore. With his enormous experience (including time working abroad), Bridges took the opportunity to return to Australia and to further develop the Curragh mine
“I came in from an overseas mining operation where we had expanded a mine and I set about putting in place some changes that took about A$128 million out of our bottom line in roughly 18 months.
“The programme we introduced was called ‘Beyond 09’ and saw us become much more automated and introduce modular mining. This required the workforce to embrace what we were doing and we took many good ideas from our staff; the management environment hadn’t been in place to listen to workers before. There were many cultural issues to overcome and it wasn’t easy, but we had to put innovation and change on the agenda. In the three and a half years I’ve been here, we have seen significant change. There are roughly three of the original management team still here and we have aimed to promote from within and give people clear career paths.”
Part of that process is the company’s extensive training programme, which encompasses all areas of the business. “Training is ongoing for all operators whether they are involved in drilling, the wash plant or operating equipment,” Bridges explains. “We also provide training for all supervisors and management to help define clear career paths, while we run an ongoing junior engineer and process engineer scheme for graduates and usually have around 60 apprentices with the company at any time.”
Bridges feels that a happy workforce is imperative and the company has gone to great lengths to ensure that the workers enjoy a good quality of life away from the mine; “We have 1,100 workers here, with approximately 500 employed by Curragh and a further 600 contractors and we do our best to hire locally, although with the mining boom, it is a challenge to find the right skilled labour.
“In the town of Blackwater we have around 400 homes and accommodation for up to an additional 800 people. Blackwater has existed for roughly the last forty years and is home to miners at other sites in the Bowen Basin too. We have worked closely with the Queensland Government to support local schools and a hospital and we support the Blackwater International Coal Centre (a not-for-profit organisation) that provides community services such as education, a movie theatre and coffee shops.”
At present Bridges is busy working on an ambitious expansion project to take the operation from 6.5 to 7.0 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) to 8.0 to 8.5 mtpa of export coal. Due for completion in late 2011, the project has seen Wesfarmers invest heavily in new equipment, including the US$35 million purchase of a Bucyrus 495 face shovel from the United States: “This is due to arrive next April and will help to remove the overburden; we’ve also invested in new trucks that can move 25 million cubic metres of overburden and expect to write off these costs over the next ten years,” he comments.
Overall this project will cost in the region of A$286 million and Bridges stresses that while funding is never easy to acquire, particularly in the current economy, the company’s corporate owners have been hugely supportive.
At present the Curragh mine has a project life up to 2025 but could be extended further. Bridges says that significant exploration has already taken place on the leased land—and continues. “I can also say that we have received approval to spend funds on a feasibility study over the next twelve to eighteen months, to look at increasing production to 10 mtpa of export coal. We will know the outcomes of that study in late 2011 and if it is approved it would make Curragh one of the largest open cut mines in the Bowen Basin.”
