The new site, which was officially opened yesterday at Heatherbrae, combines the manufacture, assembly, supply and support of a wide range of surface and underground coal mining equipment.

“This is a big commitment to manufacturing in Australia,” Sandvik Group president and chief executive Olof Faxander said.

“A lot of our focus is on underground coal mining as a company. We have some presence there but we are much stronger in hard rock mining. So that’s clearly an area where we see a potential for us to grow in the future.”

The site was officially opened by the cabinet secretary and parliamentary secretary for climate change and energy efficiency Mark Dreyfus.

It integrates a number of Sandvik Mining’s New South Wales facilities into a single operation, and is one of the company’s largest manufacturing, assembly, distribution and aftermarket service centres.

The facility covers 16 hectares, including a four hectare area for future expansion, and has a total of 28,000sq.m under cover. Around 600 employees and contractors work at the site, with capacity for a further 150. A total of 20 offsite specialist manufacturing contractors will also supply Sandvik.

Sandvik Mining Australia-Pacific president Rowan Melrose said there was close cooperation between Sandvik’s operations and underground coal operations that would feed into the global research and development efforts by the company.

He cited improvements to a semi-autonomous continuous miner that were developed with input from its customer at a nearby underground coal mine.

“It’s a true partnership between businesses,” he said.

The company said total turnover for the Hunter region would be between $200 and $300 million, including manufacturing, repairs, rebuilds, refurbishments, aftermarket and spare parts.

“Our role in the coal supply chain in the Newcastle/Hunter region is very significant – we are involved from literally the ‘point of the pick’ on the underground equipment that excavates the coal right through to the very last point of contact as the final product is loaded onto a ship for Australia’s export markets,” Melrose said.

“Our ambition is to have the safest machines on the market. As that translates to the ultimate position where you haven’t got anyone down there at all – the drills are going by themselves and the cutter drums are going by themselves – that will take time. But the ambition we have at the moment is to manufacture and supply the safest machines in the market.”

He added: “To continue supporting this growth, we have to continue to invest in facilities that will not only support our existing markets, but will also have the capacity and capability to support the growing demand for both our products and our services.”