DBT Shearer Sets New Production 
Records in Australia

    A DBT EL3000 Shearer with sophisticated "state-based automation" helped Xstrata's Beltana Highwall Mine in Australia's Hunter Valley achieve several production records in November, setting a new Australian monthly record with 955,049 tons raw) from the longwall and achieving a peak daily production record of 47,353 tons (raw). 
The mine also achieved an amazing 2,495 meters of roadway development during November, another Beltana record. At the end of mining for the 2005 calendar year, the mine has produced a total of 7,048,544 tons (raw) total mine production. With a total workforce of 160 employees, the mine sets the benchmark for productivity per employee. 
The mine's DBT EL3000 Shearer is equipped with 2 x 850 kW cutter motors and 2 x 125 kW haulage motors, making them the most powerful Shearer on the Australian market. Beltana originally purchased a single Shearer in June 2003, but then took a second as part of a long-term support program. This allows one Shearer to be overhauled at DBT's Hunter Valley facility while the other is in constant operation. 
Since the mine commenced operation in June 2003, the two DBT Shearer's have mined more than 14 million tons.
Beltana was the first mine worldwide to employ the DBT "COMPACT" Shearer control system for functional control and management of the EL3000 shearer. Operation of the system has been very successful and the "COMPACT" control system has since been sold to other Australian operators using DBT shearers including Dartbrook, Broadmeadow, Newlands and Kestrel, with orders on hand for shearers with this control system from Austar, Newpac and Crinum. The system has also been supplied to DBT Shearer installations in the USA and China.
In conjunction with the "COMPACT" control system Beltana employs the DBT "Navigator 2" automation package which includes "State-Based Automation" of the Shearer through the longwall operational sequence. This system has been very successful in allowing the mine to deliver a consistent standardized mining process that has contributed to a high hourly production rate.               cl

   
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