Curragh north

Wesfarmers, one of Australia's largest independent coal mining companies, is the owner of the Curragh North open cut coal mine that is located near the Queensland, Bowen Basin town of Blackwater. It is situated 20 kilometres from the Curragh Mine to where the coal mined at the Curragh North Mine is transported by means of an overland conveyor to the Coal Handling Preparation Plant (CHPP). This overland conveyor system is the longest single flight conveyor in the world. Steaming coal from the mine is used to power domestic power stations and the metallurgical coal exported from the port at Gladstone, 300 kilometres by rail from the mine site.

Curragh North Mine Operated by Thiess
The Curragh North coal mine is two hours west of the regional centre of Rockhampton and along with the Curragh mine covers an area of around 12,000 hectares. The two operations produce around three million tonnes of steaming coal and 8.5 million tonnes of metallurgical coal annually that is exported to South America, Europe, South-East Asia, and Japan. The steaming coal is transported by rail to the Stanwell Power Station at Rockhampton. The mine is operated by Thiess, a fully owned subsidiary of Leighton Holdings.

Mining contractor Thiess has been responsible for the mining activity that included design, construction of mining infrastructure and all the initial pre-stripping, as well as the ongoing mining operation at the Curragh North Mine from 2004 to 2008. The current contract it has with Wesfarmers Curragh Pty Ltd was agreed to in 2008 and will last for the life of the mine. The contract includes removal of overburden, ongoing coal mining and the coal processing.

During Thiess's first contract 90 million cubic metres of overburden had been removed and 11 million tonnes of coal had been mined. The current contract requires Thiess to remove 55 cubic metres of overburden each year. A M8200 Dragline 301 was relocated from the Curragh Mine to the Curragh North Mine in May 2006 for overburden removal. This Dragline was added to in September 2007 when M8750 Super Dragline 304 became available. Dragline overburden removal is supplemented with a fleet of truck and shovel pre-strip fleets supplied by contractors with excavators and trucks used in the actual coal mining activity.

Curragh North Mine can Handle 2,500 Tonnes an Hour of ROM Coal
The run-of-mine (ROM) system used at Curragh North Mine is a single line system that is able to crush 2,500 tonnes an hour. The coal is delivered by front end loaders or 190 tonne rear dump trucks to a hopper capable of handling 600 tonnes at a time. The coal leaves the hopper by means of a chain feeder that leads it to a primary crusher. It then goes to a secondary crusher to achieve a lump size not exceeding 32mm.

Conveyor Takes Curragh North Coal to CHPP via Conveyor at 27 Kilometres an Hour
The crushed coal is then taken from the Curragh North mine site via the world's longest single flight conveyor at a speed of 27 kilometres an hour. At the Curragh Mine end the coal is placed into a 500 tonne bit located at the CHPP that processes the coal.
There are two CHPP facilities at the Curragh Mine, CHPP 1 and CHPP 2. The latter being completed in mid 2012. it has been designed to handle a feed rate of 1,200 tonnes an hour. CHPP 1 has been de-rated to handle 1,200 tonnes an hour as well although each plant is capable of handling 1,700 tonnes an hour when required.
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