Southland, located near Cessnock in New South Wales Hunter Valley, will also be renamed Austar Coal mine.

An underground fire on Christmas Day last year led to the mine's closure and resulted in then-owners Gympie Gold going into receivership. In October Yanzhou purchased the operation for US$23 million.

The mine has remained open under care and maintenance by contractor Thiess.

Minarco executive director Gary Cochrane, who has acted as an advisor to Southland, told International Longwall News the development contract tender would soon be released so operations could get underway for installation of the longwall by mid-2006.

“We’ll need to get a contractor for development, whether work starts in February or March depends on equipment, whether we can hire a continuous miner, because we certainly won’t be able to buy one. There is 9-10 months delivery time at the moment on equipment, so we are just seeing what machines are around and if we can get our hands on something,” Cochrane said.

Southland’s longwall equipment was lost when the longwall was sealed off at the time of the fire, its status unknown as panel SL4 was sealed before personnel could see if the equipment was damaged.

Cochrane said the equipment would have needed to be replaced by 2006 anyway, as it was originally sourced by Southland second hand and was becoming dated.

Cochrane said at least 18 months lead time was needed to design, buy and install the longwall before ramp-up.