Truck & Shovel Operations

Draglines removed overburden (the soil layer above the coal) until 1978. In 1982 mining changed to new truck and shovel methods, enabling the economic removal of overburden to a depth of 150 metres. Initially, this was done using traditional strip mining methods, where overburden was removed from the open cut. Increased haul cycle times, associated with the deepening mining operations, led to an extensive three-year study of alternative overburden removal techniques and the introduction of “terrace mining” in 1991. Terrace mining involves dumping overburden in unused areas within the cut instead of trucking it out.