Benchmarking the Productivity of Australia's Black Coal Industry

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