Gympie, which took over operations from contractor Colrok Australia on January 10, (see related news story), is in the process of appointing another operator. Gympie said several contractors had inspected the site and the mine data and had confirmed interest in conducting full due diligence. ILN understands these contractors include Thiess, Roche and Allied.

 

A second priority is to identify and dipose of plant and equipment at the mine owned by Colrok.

 

“Plant and equipment identification is currently underway in conjunction with the voluntary administrators,” Gympie said.

 

Gympie also said it wanted to implement a new enterprise agreement: “The previous one was specific only to Colrok and expired in February 2001 so the new operator, with Southland's support, needs to establish a leading-edge enterprise agreement,” Gympie said.

 

“Southland will encourage any new operator to draw from Colrok's previous colliery workforce as much as the operator judges reasonable.”