Benchmarking the Productivity of Australia's Black Coal Industry
This report was produced by Tasman Asia Pacific Pty Ltd, which was contracted by the Commission to undertake a benchmarking study for the Australian Black Coal Industry public inquiry.
Black coal industry
Consultancy report
Benchmarking the Productivity of Australia's Black Coal Industry (PDF 430.3 KB)Contents
- Executive Summary
- Truck and shovel productivity benchmarks
- Pproductivity and cost of truck and shovel operations
- Dragline benchmarks
- Longwall operations
- Major Findings
- 1 Introduction
- 1.1 Study background
- 1.2 The Australian black coal industry — a snapshot
- 1.3 Mining technologies
- 1.4 Outline of the report
- 2 Benchmarking methodology
- 2.1 Selecting mines for benchmarking
- 2.2 Productivity performance measures
- 3 Open cut truck and shovel operations
- 3.1 The characteristics of the benchmarked operations
- 3.2 Mine outputs and inputs
- 3.3 Truck and shovel operations — total productivity benchmarks
- 3.3.1 Variation in productivity within mine categories
- 3.4 Factors contributing to productivity differences
- 3.4.1 Efficiency of the labour force
- 3.4.2 Efficiency of truck operations
- 3.4.3 Efficiency of excavation equipment
- 3.5 The link between productivity and cost
- 3.5.1 High unit labour costs contribute to the high costs of operation
- 3.6 Other factors
- 3.6.1 Incidence of industrial disputes
- 3.6.2 Safety
- 3.6.3 Equipment maintenance
- 3.7 Attributes of frontier versus moderately performing mines
- 3.8 Summary of truck and shovel analysis
- 4 Dragline operations
- 4.1 Key characteristics of the benchmarked mines
- 4.2 Dragline TFP
- 4.2.1 Mine outputs and inputs
- 4.2.2 Dragline operations — total productivity benchmarks
- 4.3 Factors contributing to differences in dragline productivity
- 4.3.1 Efficiency of dragline operations
- 4.3.2 Labour productivity
- 4.4 The link between productivity and cost
- 4.5 Summary of dragline analysis
- 5 Longwall mining operations
- 5.1 Key characteristics of the benchmarked longwall mines
- 5.2 Framework for measuring longwall productivity
- 5.3 Longwall outputs
- 5.4 Inputs used in longwall operations
- 5.5 Total productivity of longwall operations
- 5.5.1 Efficiency of the labour force
- 5.5.2 Equipment productivity
- 5.5.3 Maintenance
- 5.6 Longwall productivity and cost
- 5.7 Summary of longwall analysis
- APPENDIX 1 Productivity performance measures
- APPENDIX 2 Estimation of truck and shovel outputs and inputs
- A2.1 Truck and shovel outputs
- A2.2 Inputs used in truck and shovel operations
- Appendix 3 Estimation of dragline outputs and inputs
- A3.1 Dragline outputs
- A3.2 Inputs used in dragline operations
- References
