Karviná Mine: Double with POP 2010

KARVINÁ – Do you need results? Send Martin Brada in then! That’s what they think at ČSA Site, Karviná Mine. Sure, Martin Brada, the Chief Foreman of Section # 11 431 managed by Jan Feber, belongs to the best ones Karviná Mine can offer.

The thirty-eight-year old miner has been working underground for almost two decades, he recollects single props, OKP, DVP7, MV1, Pioma, MEOS or Fazos shields and he can share a lot of experience. This is also the reason why, in December 2008, he was entrusted with the management of a 195m-long longwall face # 11 431 with the average total seam thickness of 3m in Seam 24, Block 11 of the ČSA Mine mining territory equipped with new equipment under POP 2010 Project. But nobody has expected they will break the records for the second time already in February! And still, this happened. What’s more, Brada’s crew broke the parameters of the “record” with quite some buffer.

Whereas according to the new rules applied at Karviná Mine, one has to meet the specified monthly plan at 110 percent; Brada’s team has reached the level of 120% both in January and February. To put it into figures, they produced 111,834 tons of coal in January and 100,103 tons in February. The crew works in six-day continuous operations (with Sundays off) and that’s why they needed 27.5 working days in January and 23 working days in February to reach the record-breaking results.

Further parameters illustrating the course of production are interesting too. The average advance rate was 5.35m in January, 5.92m in February; the average daily production was correspondingly at the level of 4,067 and 4,352 tons. Daily excavated area was 1,044 square meters in January and 1,155 square meters in February; the longwall output was calculated in January at 90.33 tons per man and shift and in February at 96.72 t/MS.

“Martin Brada’s crew counts 144 members. Besides the longwall crew, it also includes the operators of dinting equipment in gateroads and other works. We cannot say that the longwall panel # 11 431 would be exceptionally good either. There were tectonic faults and other problems. This makes the crew’s performance even better,” Jiří Tomica, Head of Longwall Operations at ČSA Site, emphasized the success of Brada’s crew.

The new longwall set from Bucyrus includes 112 DBT 13/31 shields, an Eickhoff SL 300 shearer, a PF6/1042 AFC, a PF4/1132 stage loader and auxiliary installations. According to Martin Brada’s opinion, it is good, powerful and safe equipment with substantial automation that helps the miners facilitate their work. “However, if somebody thinks we just “push the buttons”, he’s wrong. Gate entries have not changed, they are the same and there’s still the daily mining routine you can’t go without,” says the Chief Foreman.

That is why he praises the approach of shift foremen Dušan Kenda, Josef Foltýn, Roman Kulpa, Milan Kohl and Zdenko Chochrun, as well as that of Roman Piechaczek, Area Manager, and others. “Not many people believed we can master the new equipment so soon. But it’s easy to get used to something better, so it goes fast. We are of course glad to be successful and I can just hope that we can break some more records in future,” Martin Brada smiles. His results up-to-now show these words are not vain.

(Bohuslav Krzyžanek)