Palaris Mining is managing the development concept study, which is due for completion by December.

Downer EDI is looking after the coal processing studies while Parsons Brinckerhoff is taking care of the surface infrastructure studies.

Two drill rigs are on site while a third rig will start to drill for water modelling purposes in the first week of September.

The project site office is complete while discussions are continuing for NuCoal’s separate training mine plans.

“We are pleased with the progress to date on this exciting project and believe the substantial ramp up in activity supports our belief that the Doyles Creek Operation will be a first class mining and training facility,” NuCoal managing director Glen Lewis said.

He sees the opportunity for multi-seam longwall mining in the Doyles Creek project, which is 10km from Xstrata’s United Colliery and Peabody Energy’s Wambo longwall.

NuCoal’s vision for Doyles Creek is a commercial longwall mine alongside Australia’s first coal-centric training facility.

The project hosts 420 million tonnes of resources.

Shares in the company closed up 1.5c or 6.5% to 24.5c yesterday.