This was said in his annual report by chairman Jasbir Singh of the company which has made 150 personnel redundant, is continuing with the approval progression and design of Wongawilli South and development at Russell Vale.

“While we wait for necessary approvals, we are focusing on and continuing with developmental works for future longwall blocks in Russell Vale mine,” he said.

“Development work for next longwall panel (Panel 6) at Russell Vale has been completed and development work on the mains is continuing.”

The company was operating within the old Nebo workings for continuity as a transition to high capacity operations at the Wongawilli South project.

The longwall was scheduled to mine through existing roadways over the remainder of the life of the Nebo area.

“This activity had geotechnical risks and it was an unforseen geotechnical fault that led to the longwall suffering an intensive roof fall in February 2014,” Singh said.

“After detailed analysis taking into consideration that longwall operations in the Nebo area are uneconomic and due to the high cost of recovery, it has been decided to leave the longwall in-situ.

“The operation team is currently working on plans to extract coal using continuous miners, which is not suitable in current uneconomic environment mainly due to low coal prices. However, there will be an opportunity to recommence from care and maintenance when the market rebounds.”