Context / scope of project : This underground mine had been active for many years, and was reaching its end-of-life. As most of the “easy coal” had been mined out in previous years, geology had become very difficult with frequent dykes and inclined seams. The mine was facing significant water issues - combined with the inclined seams, underground conditions were extremely difficult, especially given that most of the fleet of continuous mining machines were at 300%+ of their recommended service life and thus prone to frequent breakdowns. Finally, it was well known that the current owners were planning to sell the mine, leading to severe morale problems and high personnel turnover. The brief from the mine was to improve profitability substantially, without capital expenditure.

PIP and client achieved:
	28% decrease in costs per tonne of coal
	35% tonnage increase in key production areas
	29% reduction in main belt downtime
	15% reduction in continuous miner downtime in key production areas