David Moult, CEO and MD Centennial Coal

On August 27th, Austmine was fortunate enough to be joined by David Moult, CEO and MD of
Centennial Coal as the main speaker for our Smart Mining Networking event in Sydney.
David joined us at a challenging time for the coal sector here in Australia, which he acknowledged at
the start of his presentation, noting that for one of their mines in the west of NSW, the state
government has changed regulations seven times during the period it had taken Centennial to pull
together their application. Between climate change, environmental groups, over supply in the market
and (until fairly recently) the strong Australian dollar, its been a tough few years for many coal miners.
However, David wanted to focus on some of the positives coming out of the coal sector. A big one is
that of Coal21, which was a fund set up by the Australian coal industry in 2006 and was the first
voluntary initiative of its kind anywhere in the world. It is a voluntary levy on coal production, which
has committed so far more than $300 million into clean coal technology, across carbon capture and
storage (CCS), methane emissions abatement at operating underground coal mines.
There are now several examples around the world where we see these technologies working well,
such as the Boundary Dam commercial-scale CCS plant that opened in October 2014 in Canada and is
hailed as the worlds first power plant of this size fitted with the technology.
David also went on to point out that the market is finally beginning to balance supply and demand.
Much of this has been due to the coal supply easing off in Indonesia, with its biggest client being China
who of course requires far less coal currently.
Centennial Coal are now focused on the future, rather than the difficult last couple of years. David
referred to the waves of cost-cutting that mining is going through, as conceived by Kirby Johnson,
Consulting Partner at Wipro, who also joined us to present. The first wave is cancel projects, the
second is sweat the assets and the third, which began in 2014 is a re-engineering focus (you can
read more about this on Wipros blog). David confirmed Centennial are well into the third phase,
focusing on optimisation of their assets through increased productivity combined with cost reduction.
Centennial in particular are looking at 3 different aspects within this:
1. Real-time monitoring of equipment
2. Step change productivity
3. Implementation of preventative maintenance optimisation
David pointed out with in coal mines, the main way to get your improvements is by breaking down
every process within your operation and analysing their efficiency levels. Centennial now have a
dashboard for their cutting rates in every mine site, to standardise processes across all their sites and
compare data. David highlighted other pending plans for their continuous improvement on the slide
you can see below:

Megan Edwards Membership and Communications Manager Austmine

Megan.edwards@austmine.com.au 02 8310 0601

Springvale was Centennials first mine to move to an automated longwall cutting system, and it is now
fully automated. They have seen a huge improvement achieved by taken out the human element,
particularly in relation to the cutting horizon quality control and speed. David pointed out that with a
longwall, it is easy to overload the systems, which in turn can overload the conveyors, and obviously
end in potential equipment failure. Automating the cutting system has allowed them to learn through
trial and error and gear it to optimal behaviour.
David went on to discuss their continuous miners automation, which has allowed them to significantly
improve floor and horizon control, reducing traveling time by 20% and theyve seen a drop in injuries
thanks to the smoother journeys being taken by the operations teams along the tunnel!
Centennial Coal have a fantastic story when it comes to productivity and cost reduction. David noted
that labour productivity is the long term productivity measure used in the mining industry. Two years
ago, Centennial were operating at 9000 tonnes per person; one year ago it was 10,800 tonnes per
person and they are now at 11,300 tonnes per person. The last two years has also seen Centennial
achieve a 26% unit cost reduction significant savings.
David wrapped up his presentation by stating Centennial Coal are 95% of the way to the optimal finish
position. This will of course put them in an enviable position when the coal price does change, thanks
to their hard work over the last 2 3 years.

Megan Edwards Membership and Communications Manager Austmine

Megan.edwards@austmine.com.au 02 8310 0601