Wesfarmers Curragh has picked up its second award for its overland conveyor when the Curragh North Conveyor project won the Queensland Engineering Excellence Products and Manufacturing Facilities category at the Queensland awards ceremony on October 17.
The conveyor designed, constructed and commissioned by Laing O’Rourke which at 20.02 kilometres is the longest single flight conveyor in the world, has already won the 2007 Bulk Handling Facility of the Year.
The project has achieved significant reductions in power draw as well as capital and operating cost savings of about 40 per cent.
Commissioned in 2007, the overland conveyor transports ROM coal from Wesfarmers Curragh’s new mine at Curragh North to its existing mine at Curragh. All coal processing and rail loading facilities are located at the existing Curragh mine.
Wesfarmers Curragh Project Manager, Stephen Downs said the design of the Curragh North Materials Handling facility had minimised local environmental impacts such as dust, visual amenity, noise and vibration.
“The project delivered Wesfarmers Curragh a high-quality reliable asset which would assist to underpin the viability of the Curragh North mine in the long term,” Stephen said.
“The Curragh North coal reserves exceed 130 million tonnes of coal so it was vital to ensure a materials handling system could transport these volumes efficiently and in an environmentally responsible manner.”
The project is now in the running for the national award which will be announced in November.