Yanzhou Coal Mining, which completed its acquisition of Felix Resources in early 2010, also detailed progress with the proposed expansion of the Yarrabee open cut mine in Central Queensland to 3 million tonnes per annum in its recent annual report.
“The preparatory works for the expansion project of Yarrabee coal mine as well as the preliminary works for Moolarben underground coal mine are underway,” Yanzhou chairman Li Weimin said.
The Upper Hunter Valley mine hit 12Mtpa of capacity, according to the Chinese parent company.
However, development also resulted in a $A70,000 fine and $55,000 of court costs for Yancoal last year when it was found to have unlawfully cleared sensitive vegetation near Ulan.
The stage-two plans to develop two longwall operations are in the “proponent reviewing submissions” stage of the New South Wales government’s planning system under part 3A of the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act.
Floating Yancoal
In gaining Foreign Investment Review Board approval for the acquisition of Felix Resources, Yanzhou agreed to float Yancoal on the Australian Securities Exchange by the end of 2012 and to own less than 70% of the company at that time.
The chairman revealed work was underway for this scheduled float, and he expects this move to provide a greater pool of capital which could also accelerate the adoption of longwall-top coal caving.
This Chinese-developed mining method is only used at one Australian operation, Yancoal’s Austar mine near Cessnock.
“Direct financing channels in different currencies are available by taking advantages of the listing platform, thus providing direct financing at low cost,” he said.
“By speeding up the capitalisation of fully mechanised top coal-caving technique, and achieving production targets with the use of technology and intellectual properties, overall efficiency will be increased.”
Yancoal already owned the Austar mine before the Felix Resources acquisition, which added four more mines to its portfolio, including the Ashton mine surface and longwall mine.
