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Although labour productivity problems are thought of as a factor mainly caused by the lack of commitment by the labour force, it essentially arises by a process in which several parameters are interrelated such as the effects of legislation, management and labour responsibility. In the present study, the method of Labour Productivity Management by Ratio (WPMR) was used to assess labour productivity at the lignite mining company, GLE-Turkey, since this method takes into account the factors affecting labour productivity. The method was applied to the stripping area of GLE-Turkey in order to measure and interpret the labour productivity in this mine. A major conclusion of the present investigation was that labour productivity at GLE was found to be lower than should be expected. It was also found that most of the labour productivity losses were related to both legislative restrictions and the lack of management and supervision.

Underground coal production at GLE Turkey was originally won from conventional longwall mining (drill and blast) and more recently from the innovative use of the mechanised longwall top coal caving method. This latter method was introduced to gain maximum tonnage from the extraction of an 8 m lignite coal seam under very difficult mining conditions. The present paper discusses the application of the longwall top coal caving method and its advantages and disadvantages compared with conventional longwall mining at the mine. In general adequate retreat rates were achieved once sufficient experience of the top coal caving method allowed the method to be refined. This is especially important at GLE-Turkey as major lignite coal reserves are at 400-600 m depth and will present a challenge to mine effectively and economically.

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The Seyitö mer Lignite Enterprise of the Turkish National Coal Board (SLE) is one of the largest coal producers in Turkey and produces coal from an open cast mine close to the city of Kü tahya. The most significant problem that the enterprise currently faces is the low quality run of mine coal which is mainly sold to the nearby power station. The excavation of the partings in the seam together with coal increases the ash content of the coal produced, which in turn decreases the efficiency of the coal burning process at the power station and results in high penalty costs for the mine.Since the main problems at SLE were caused by the current coal quality, not meeting the standards required by the power plant and the market, and the need for balanced pit development an attempt was made at quality planning to meet the various requirements. Factors related to quality improvement for current and proposed production strategies were determined, according to the customers' quality demands and the saleable coal quality reserves. Afterwards, the necessity and the degree of selectivity for each strategy and determining of an optimum excavation configuration was defined. The result was high selectivity mining at the B 3 seam to increase the power plant coal quality up to 1761 kcal kg 21 using a production strategy based on maximum coal supply to the market.