Open Cut » Coal Extraction
A hand held Coal Face Ash Analyser was developed with an ACARP grant. Four prototype instruments were constructed from aluminium. The instrument weighs 2 kg and is using two gamma-ray microsources: 133Ba and 137Cs of activities 1.3 MBq and 0.35 MBq respectively. The time per measurement is 60 seconds.
The accuracy for ash determination was below 3%, measured on samples of crushed coal with ash content between 9 and 48 % ash.
The Face Ash Coal Analyser was commercialised. AUSLOG, a Brisbane company which manufactures geophysical equipment, will produce and market the instrument worldwide.
The Face Analyser was developed for open cut coal mines. Based on the results obtained in this work it is recommended further development of the instrument for underground mines.