The company shelved production plans for the South Island project in February with 29 jobs made redundant.

“While we have deferred the full development of Escarpment until export coking coal prices improve, we haven’t been idle,” Bathurst chairman Malcolm Macpherson said at the annual general meeting on Friday.

“We’ve been working hard on initial site works – installing fences, roads, preliminary water management facilities and basic infrastructure.

“We have started clearing stockpile areas and exposing coal faces so when the market turns we will be well placed to quickly ramp up to full commercial production.”

The project has a target of 500,000 tonnes per annum of premium coking coal with a ramp up option to 1 million tonnes per annum.