Poborowski, who had held the position of ventilation officer at Solid’s Huntley East mine before his tenure at Austar, will need to address the possibility of developing a third drift to drain gas out of the mine.

Solid will be building a $30 million ventilation system at Huntley East to service its northern extension.

Poborowski gave a presentation at the recent ventilation conference at the University of New South Wales that compared the Australian and Chinese approach towards the spontaneous combustion hazard management in order to “exchange experience, identify possible improvements and learn from each other”

“For quite some time, the Australian and Chinese underground coal mining industries have evolved independently, with minimal influence on each other,” he told the conference.

“Despite the fact that in the recent years several technologies and solutions have become common for both industries, this trend has seemingly continued, to the point that there are still many important differences in legislation and hazard management systems in both countries.

“Austar coal mine, as an Australian based and Chinese owned enterprise, has a unique opportunity to benefit from both nations’ technology and knowledge.”

Huntly East has extensively overhauled and upgraded its ventilation system, which is based on an Australian two-fan design and was installed when the mine was built in 1978.

“The system is designed so that should the fan stall temporarily due to sudden wind gusts, the second fan will maintain the integrity of the mine ventilation,” the company said.

“This has happened on a few occasions in the last year.”

It also attempted to defend safety at the mine after excessive gas was monitored leading to a cessation of operations. It called public meetings last week and pointed to an audit conducted for the Department of Labour that found there was no evidence that a dangerous situation was imminent.