The order was placed by the Walter Construction Group, which has ordered two continuous mining machines and support shuttle cars. Walter has been contracted by BHP Billiton Illawarra Coal to do the initial tunnel and some infrastructure development.

This contract follows another multi-million dollar contract signed late last year for Joy to supply two new continuous mining machines and mobile roofbolting equipment to the Austral-owned Tahmoor coal mine, and the export shipment last month of a further continuous miner to Solid Energy in New Zealand.

Mark Finlay, Joy managing director said these orders were an important step forward for Joy’s manufacturing operations in both Moss Vale and Wollongong.

“We entered back into the original equipment manufacturing business at our Moss Vale plant in March 2001.The business as a whole has worked hard to build the confidence with our customers that we can supply, on time, on quality and on price,” he said.

Finlay said the manufacture of the mining equipment will be a joint project between the company’s Moss Vale and Illawarra plants, both in NSW. Final assembly and testing is to be conducted on the Southern Highlands prior to delivery to the Dendrobium site in September this year he said.

The Moss Vale and Illawarra plant both achieved high quality and safety standards in 2001, with the Moss Vale facilities and Service Engineering teams winning the prestigious Joy “President's Safety award” for the most improved of all Joy facilities in their category. Joy’s Illawarra operations ran a very close second.