Branch
Report:
29th April 2009
Site Visit
Ffos-Y-Fran
O.C.C.S.
The South Wales Branch held a site visit
on Wednesday 29th April 2009 at Miller Argent`s Ffos-Y-Fran
Open Cast Coal Site, which was a very popular visit attended by 28 Branch
Members.
The joint presentation was given by
Martin Lumsden of Finning Ltd and Brian Rostron of Miller Argent outlining
the history of the site up to the planning stages and the start of the
Ffos-Y-Fran site.
Finning supply a fleet of machines on
the site and are working in partnership with Miller Argent.
The site is phase 3 of the East Merthyr
Land Reclamation Scheme, this agreement was agreed upon in 1993 by British
Coal, Mid Glamorgan County Council and Merthyr Tydfil Borough Council, the
planning application for phase 3 was submitted on 3rd May 2003,
the public inquiry was in September 2004 and the planning consent was
granted on 11th April 2005.
The site will create approximately 600
jobs, 200 direct jobs & 400 indirectly.
The duration of the site is estimated at
21 years, 11 – 14 years coaling, 2 years restoration and 5 years
aftercare.
The total amount of coal to be recovered
is estimated at 11,000,000 tons with an annual output between 750,000 to
1,000,000 tons with 1,000 acres of land being reclaimed.
Finning`s involvement began in 2001,
when they were first approached, between 2002 – 2005 they became
increasingly involved in fleet production studies and various cost
effective packages. Early in 2006 the
fleet size & mix was
established, September 2006 a Letter of Intent was given to Finning and
the contract was signed in April 2007.
The
fleet of machines supplied by Finning is listed below :
28
x Caterpillar 777F Off Highway Trucks
3 x Caterpillar D9T Track
Type Tractors
3 x Support Equipment (Fuel & Water)
2 x 824H Caterpillar Tyre Dozers
3 x 324DL Caterpillar Hydraulic
Excavators
2 x 325DL Caterpillar Hydraulic Coal
Shovels
1 x 33ODL Caterpillar Hydraulic Excavator
1 x 966H Caterpillar Front End Wheel
loader
1 x 980H Caterpillar Front End Wheel
loader
Finning have a workshop facility on site
with 4 service engineers, an Operation Manager, Engineering Team Leader
and a project planner.
After the presentation there was a trip
around the site to view the machines in operation which was followed by a
buffet in the Site Training Centre.
