The announcement last week of the closure of the NSW Cumnock mine will see a further reduction in the number of operating longwalls in Australia.

The top three producers (over 1Mt) were all Queensland based. MIM’s Oaky North produced a total of 1.559Mt (including development coal) for the three month period, followed by Rio Tinto’s Kestrel mine on 1.285Mt and Anglo Coal’s German Creek Southern on 1.137Mt. South Bulga on 1.032Mt was followed by Newlands on 975,656t.

Coal Services, which prepared the statistics, also released productivity figures for New South Wales longwall mines only for the year ended June 2002.

Using productivity figures that include all employees shows that three of the state’s most productive longwall mines are owned by Xstrata. The company’s South Bulga mine lead the pack with a raw tonnage of roughly 17,500t per employee. Wambo (owned by Hunter Coal) was next with around 17,250 t/e. Xstrata’s Baal Bone and Ulan mines produced just under 17,000 t/e and 15,500 t/e respectively.

Following the top four, which are grouped around the 15,000-17,500 t/e mark, the next best five mines drop off to just above 10,000 t/e. Moonee (since closed) was the state’s fifth most productive longwall, followed by Newstan, West Wallsend, Cumnock No 1 and Springvale.

Full year production statistics for the year ended December 31, 2002, are expected by February/March.