ON SITE
The first coal seam (2 Upper Seam) in
South Pit, is encountered at the bottom
of the sandstone, about 9m from surface.
In the South Pit, CMS uses two 750 Volvo
excavators and a brand-new fleet of seven
A40 Volvo ADTs. A 950 Volvo excavator
and three A60 Articulated Dump Trucks
(ADTs) were delivered to CMS during the
last week in April.
Thompson explains that CMS has
historically purchased Bell ADTs,
Hitachi excavators and Komatsu dozers.
“However, we recently decided to
standardise our fleet at Khanye with Volvo
equipment,” says Thompson.
CMS will use excavators and ADTs to load
the coal – about three to four trucks per
excavator, depending on the haul distance
and turnaround time. “Because all three
excavators are working close to each other
you can swop trucks. Operators are trained
to identify where they are needed the most
when they arrive at the face. Our control
room system allows the operator to report
on an hourly basis what they have loaded
(topsoil, shale, clay or coal). The system
works well because South Pit is small.
However, if there are 60 trucks and more
excavators, you do need a more fixed and
rigid system,” explains Thompson.
Canyon Coal does all the blasting at
Khanye in-house, but the drilling is done
by a contractor called MEM. The company
uses BME’s electronic blasting system.
Currently they are drilling up to 13 000m
per month, including overburden, parting
and coal. Thompson says that there is a lot
of clay in the area and they have historically
only been able to drill about 3000m to
5000m per month. “In the South Pit,
14
SEPTEMBER 2019
Unearthing the coal
Mining in full swing in Khanye’s South Pit.
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