Removal of overburden in the area adjacent to the northeast wall and above the water levels in the main pit, described as the Eastern Syncline, began in mid-February.

Subject to further weather events, it is expected that sufficient overburden will be removed from this area to allow production of raw coal to begin in May 2011, the company said.

Overburden material being removed from the Eastern Syncline is being used in the construction of a 1:1000 year flood-event levee bank, which is approximately 2.5 metres higher than the recent flood event, as part of the mining lease requirements for the Baralaba complex’s planned extension of operations.

Dewatering of the main pit of the Baralaba mine is continuing and all operations have been maintained safely and in accordance with government stipulations in respect of the quality of water discharge at the maximum practicable rates of discharge, the company said.

A geotechnical assessment for the main pit has been conducted with no major instability issues reported.

In spite of the extraordinary circumstances, over 400,000 bank cubic metres of overburden was removed in the period, and much of this material was productively utilised in levee bank construction.

No run of mine coal production was achieved during the quarter but some product stocks existed prior to the inundation event, and some mine ROM coal stocks were unaffected by flooding and successfully processed into saleable product coal upon re-entry into the minesite.