Giants of steel

24. November 2023

SCHADE Lagertechnik

SCHADE inspection in an Australian coalfield

One stacker, two portal scraper reclaimers and one circular storage stockyard installed on the 3,800 hectare site. The coal mine in Australia has led a quiet life for almost 10 years and is now preparing for its second chance at operation. The open-cast mine is connected to good rail infrastructure. In order to bring their black treasure back into daylight, store them and transport them onwards, machines of enormous dimensions and conveying capacity were conceived almost 30 years ago by SCHADE and delivered, assembled and put into operation together with a local partner:

The stacker has a stacking capacity of 2,750 tph and builds two parallel stockpiles. This is possible by the slewing function and the hydraulic lifting and lowering of the stacker boom. The two portal scraper reclaimers with a rail span of 52 m each, double scraper booms and a reclaim capacity of 3,100 tph per machine, were the largest and most powerful chain scrapers in the world at the time. The circular storage facility with stacker (2,500 tph) and bridge scraper reclaimer (1,600 tph) has a diameter of 120 m and serves as a blending bed storage facility for homogenization of the washed coal.

The on-site inspection by the engineering team shows that despite after twenty years of operation and a subsequent ten-year standstill period, the machines are in very good condition – and demonstrate the quality of SCHADE machines.