For the 2009-2010 year the mine reached 9.69Mt of total run-of-mine production – beating fellow Xstrata operation Newlands Northern which produced 8.87Mt of ROM coal.

When including 4.3Mt of production from Oaky Creek No1, the Oaky Creek Coal Complex nearly produced 14Mt in the recent financial year.

An Xstrata spokesman told ILN the complex had overcome difficulties in the past 2-3 years.

The Oaky No1 longwall only resumed production at the start of August last year when coking coal demand picked up, while Oaky North also faced some tough geological conditions.

The spokesman said the team at Oaky Creek put in a lot of hard work to upgrade and revolutionise the business.

“Now we are in good geological conditions we are thundering through,” he said.

“It is a very positive performance for this business and certainly the customers are responding very well to Oaky coal.”

Coal Services provided the production data, and rolled in the figures of Beltana and its replacement longwall mine Blakefield South, which kicked off in June.

The total ROM production of 5.73Mt puts Xstrata’s Beltana/Blakefield South operation in New South Wales in third place for the 2009-2010 full year.

Close behind was Centennial Coal’s Mandalong longwall in the state, with 5.5Mt of ROM output.

Taking fifth place was BHP Mitsubishi Alliances’ Crinum East longwall operation in Queensland with 5.32Mt of ROM production.

No other mines managed to surpass the 5Mt per annum barrier.

One of the newest longwall mines, Vale’s Carborough Downs, managed to produce 1.93Mt of ROM coal during the 2009-2010 financial year.