The maximum panel height at which the system can be operated could reach as much as 5.3 m!

“This is another system, apart from the ploughing system, which will enable us to maximize excavation in those areas which until now were beyond our reach,” says Czesław Kubaczka, the director of the Borynia-Zofiówka mine. “Thanks to the ploughing system, we can reach the lowest seams. Now, due to the new longwall system we will be able to excavate coal from seams of even more than 5 m,” says the director of the mine.

The longwall system, designed and manufactured by Fabryka Maszyn i Urządzeń Tagor — the factory owned by the Kopex Group, will be transported to the mine with the use of an internal combustion railway. This is a remarkable logistic achievement due to the fact that the transport will include not only a shearer, which weights approx. 90 tonnes, but also 140 face shields (35.7 tonnes each), 10 face-end shields (38.5 tonnes each), as well as two gateroad supports, each of which weights 62.7 tonnes.

Excavation of panel G-4 with the use of the new high longwall system will increase the output capacity of the seam by approx. 55,000 tonnes. The panel equipment which is currently in use at the mine makes it possible to excavate seams with thickness of up to 3.6 m.

Additional information:

To remind - the first experience, after eleven years when ploughing systems were not used for coal excavation in the Polish mining sector, was gained by the miners from the Zofiówka mine. The system started work in Zofiówka’s panel B1 in August 2009. It was transferred to the Jas-Mos mine in April 2010. What does it mean for the mines? First of all, coal may now be extracted from low seams – up to 1.5 m, which would not be possible with the use of traditional methods. In the resources, in particular those intended to be used in the future, a large portion is represented by seams with thickness of up to 1.5 m. The development of Jastrzębska Spółka Węglowa will largely depend on our efficient exploitation of all seams. This was the reason for which the Company decided to introduce the ploughing technique. The same might be said about the high longwall system, which will make it possible to increase extraction at great heights. This was impossible until recently due to technical and economic reasons.

foto: Agnieszka Barzycka