The Shenhua Beidian Shengli Energy Company in Inner Mongolia has adopted technolgy from the German-based Wirtgen group which it expects will make large savings in the fuel consumption and the corresponding greenhouse gas emissions associated with open caste coal mining.

China Shenhua Shengli Energy Branch is one of the core enterprises of China Shenhua Energy Company Ltd. and is focused on building and operating a large-scale coal power plant. The plan is to build a pithead power plant with a capacity of 16 x 660MW, located beside the opencast coal mine in Xilinhot City, Inner Mongolia. This will be the largest plant of its type in the world to be located directly beside a coal mine.

To transport the initial yearly production of 10 million tons the original extraction method at the coal mine required about 526,000 trips per year by three axle 20-ton trucks. This was because their real load, when mined and loaded by conventional excavators, was only 19 tons.

China Shenhua is now using Wirtgen Surface Miner 2200/3800 equipment that can cut up to 5,000 tons based on an eight hour work shift The cut coal is then loaded onto the trucks using wheeled loaders. Due to the cutting technology the material appears as a pre-crushed product and only sizing is required to get the final particle size with an overall reduction in investment and operating costs. As the material is much smaller and consistent it is possible to load around 10% more material on the same truck or train compared to coal mined by excavators.

This increase in loading has reduced the number of trips required to just 500,000. The 26,000 trips less per year represent less fuel consumption, lower emissions of greenhouse gasses, lower repair and maintenance costs, and less traffic. Since there is less spillage on the haul roads it is reported that this technology this also safer.

According to the president and chairman of China Shenhua Shengli Energy Branch, Mr. Lui this method of opencast mining is simple since it eliminates crushing and power shovels, and is very efficient.