Track Record

• For the Grosvenor Mine restart gas strategy, Michael was engaged to develop the strategy to select gas drainage and ventilation techniques which would be trialled to effectively manage the new longwall safety with zero gas exceedances. He developed a system to evaluate the effectives of the techniques that were then embedded in the mine’s ongoing mine plan
• He led the Illawarra Coal CAMGAP team which was responsible for the carbon emissions minimisation under the Clean Energy Act 2011 (Carbon Tax Legislation) for the South32 Illawarra Coal Downstream Gas Management. The project tracked carbon emissions and cost in real time, developed and costed decarbonisation projects and presented them to the committee for approval, then oversaw their execution and effectiveness
• As Operations Manager at South32 WestVAMP, Michael led the Illawarra Coal Downstream Gas team responsible for the operation of the WestVAMP VOXidiser ventilation air methane combustion plant. The plant treated 70m3/s of mine return air and generated 5MW from a steam turbine
• Michael undertook a detailed ventilation review of the planned TBM ventilation design for the EVCT and MAT tunnels as part of the Snowy2 pumped hydro project. He conducted an industry review of best practice DPM management and recommended several improvements to the ventilation strategy to ensure compliance with industry standards
• After a QLD coal operation experienced 2 catastrophic main fan failures, Michael investigated and established the likely aerodynamic causes of the failures, then modelled future ventilation requirements to develop a specification for replacement fans