West Cliff
West Cliff
Opened in 1976 the West Cliff Mine is a high-volume longwall mine extracting coal from the Bulli Seam using one longwall and five continuous miners.
During the mining process mechanized shearers are used to cut and remove the coal at the face of the mine. After the coal is removed, it drops onto a chain conveyor, which moves it to a second conveyor that transports the coal to the surface. Hydraulic-powered roof supports hold up the roof as the extraction process proceeds. Following mining most of the longwall panel is allowed to collapse behind the roof supports, forming a goaf.
With a washery capable of processing in excess of 4.5 million tonnes and a capacity to store over 2.5 million tonnes of coal on site, West Cliff provides the production reliability vital to steel makers.
Clean coal from West Cliff can be stored on site, trucked to BlueScope's Steelworks at Port Kembla, or to the Port Kembla Terminal for export.
High methane gas levels in the Bulli seam saw the introduction of methane drainage in 1980. In this process, methane gas is extracted ahead of mining, and during coal extraction by drilling holes in the coal seam and exhausting the gas to the surface. This gas is captured and used to generate 1.2 MW of electricity through a power generation plant situated near the mine. A pipeline also b connects West Cliff with the Appin Mine power plant.
