Starting on New Year’s Day, Thiess is taking over this work from Leighton Contractors.

“This contract illustrates how the Leighton Group can leverage its scale as the world’s largest mining contractor to deliver value to our clients,” Leighton Holdings executive chairman and CEO Marcelino Fernandez Verdes said.

Thiess managing director Bruce Munro said the successful relationship between Thiess and Jellinbah Group dated back to the establishment of its Lake Vermont coal mine in 2007.

“We are delighted to extend our partnership with Jellinbah Group and to continue our focus on bringing cost efficiencies and innovation to the mine site,” he said.

“This contract win demonstrates that there are still strong opportunities for clients and their partners to deliver exceptional value in the coal mining industry.”

The Jellinbah mine has production capacity of about 4.6 million tonnes per annum and is 70% owned by privately held Jellinbah Group while Marubeni Coal and Sojitz Coal each hold 15%.

The open cut mine produces pulverised coal injection-grade metallurgical coal.