The expansion will lift output by up to 4 million tonnes per annum of metallurgical coal, consisting mainly of hard coking coal and the rest a pulverised coal injection product.
The Thiess Sedgman Joint Venture designed and built the plant, which started up in March 2009.
“We look forward to building on our past successes at the Lake Vermont mine with the execution of a project that is on time, on budget, and achieves all our client’s objectives,” Sedgman chief executive and managing director Nick Jukes said.
The 4Mtpa Lake Vermont mine is targeting 6Mtpa in 2013 and 8Mtpa in 2014.
About 18 kilometres northeast of Dysart, the mine is jointly owned by Jellinbah Group (70%), Marubeni Coal (10%), Japan’s Sojitz Corporation (10%) and private coal player AMCI (10%).
Sedgman shares are up 1c to $2.23 this morning.
