The company has not avoided the effects of continued shipping delays at the port of Newcastle, however, with sales of 226,000t down significantly from Newpac’s total production of 508,000t in the quarter.

While the reintroduction of the capacity balancing system is expected to reduce the queue to sustainable levels by the end of the June quarter, demurrage costs are forecast at $US3.00 per tonne while the current delays of three to four weeks continue.

After some “minor teething issues with the wall” since it began operating in January, managing director and CEO Paul Jury said the geological conditions continue to be consistent with information from the overlying opencut mining.

The development of Main Gate 2 continues, with a gap of approximately two months forecast between the completion of Longwall 1 and the commencement of Longwall 2.

The new development equipment, scheduled for delivery in June, is expected to increase development rates to reduce delays in between later longwall blocks.

The continuous miners have been ordered from Joy Mining Machinery and are off-the-shelf 12CM12s, while the 10SC32BCs shuttle cars, also ordered from Joy, have a 16.4t payload and are fitted with suspension.

“This whole new fleet is going to be used for development ahead of the longwall blocks. We have been using older Joy machinery in the mine [12CM11s], but they're quite aged so these will be taking their place," Jury told International Longwall News when the order was placed.