The Bowen Basin bord and pillar mine became Caledon’s first operating coal mine in March, and will be the only Australian coal operation using continuous haulage methods when it begins full production later this year.

The fundraising comes after the company revised its arrangements with the mining contractor at Cook, deciding to move operational mining activities in-house to reduce overall mining costs.

Caledon also cited unforeseen production delays and equipment breakdowns as further motive to seek additional funding for the mine.

“The board believes that the proposed fundraising represents the best way currently available to the company to fill the additional funding requirements needed by the group,” Caledon chairman Robert Alford said in an AIM-released statement.

Since March first coal, Cook has been using three Voest-Alpine ABM 20 bolter miners and a Joy12CM12 bolter miner to accelerate roadway development.

Meanwhile, the first shipment of Flexiveyor continuous haulage components has arrived onsite and a new, state-of-the-art Voest-Alpine ABM25 bolter miner is due for delivery in early July.

With the introduction of continuous haulage, the company expects to increase coking and thermal coal production from 10,000 tonnes per month to 100,000t per month over the course of the year, with a production rate of 1.5 million tonnes per annum expected in 2008.

Engineers from Canada and South Africa are now onsite to assemble and surface test the unit prior to operator training, and a full operations crew of 90 people has been employed at Cook.

Look out for the upcoming June edition of Australian Longwall Magazine which features a detailed look at the continuous haulage system set for use at Cook.