IN an eventful day that saw a group of local environmentalists storm in and interrupt the proceedings and denounce the mining of coal in the Hunter Valley, speakers also addressed the growth of automation in longwalls, roadway development innovation, and updates of the Narrabri and Nucoal mines.

Peter Lynch, the former chief executive of Waratah Coal and now chairman of Jack Doolan Capital, said Australia’s geographic location makes it well suited to capitalise on Chinese demand but a close neighbour of Australia, Indonesia, has been far more active and far more ready to capitalise on that demand.

“In 2009 China became a net importer of coal,” he said. “It produces 3.4 billion tonnes but now imports 100mt of coal. Is a significant increase in its demand. That is what increasing the price.

“Indonesia is currently just behind Australia but is about to take over Australia in total exports,” he said. “About three years ago, Indonesia over took Australia as the biggest exporter of thermal coal in the world and they are about to become the biggest exporter of coal in the world.”

Lynch, who was also formerly the chief executive of Waratah Coal will become the executive chairman of Altera Resources under a deal that aims to create a mid-tier Indonesian coking coal producer.

Lynch surprised the coal industry when he resigned from Clive Palmer’s Waratah back in January but he was never expected to leave coal mining altogether but last month Jack Doolan Capital entered into a sales agreement where Altera will control over the four coking coal tenements JDC has acquired in the Central Kalimantan coal region of Indonesia.

He was drawn to Central Kalimantan not only because of its quality coking coal prospectivity, but because of the country’s advancement of its coal industry and a reasonable tax regime.

The Chinese want to put some of their $US2.2 trillion in US dollar reserves into resources projects, said Lynch.

“As we shift towards non-traditional forms of finance, we can align ourselves to the people that have the money in our region,” Lynch said.

“They’re right on the doorstop of this market .

“It’s something we ought to focus on in terms of maintaining our best coal exporter.

“We have a very important role to play in putting pressure on the major stakeholders, that is the senior people of the companies that we work for and also our government about the future health of the coal industry.”

Regional manager of underground technical services for Anglo American Metallurgical Coal Bruce Robertson said longwalls have been growing steadily in Australia but there were a few technical issues that could be addressed to improve productivity.

“The data shows our industry is growing steadily at about three to four per cent per annum. Fifty per cent of longwall production comes from Queensland compared with 47 per cent in 2002,” Robertson said.

“We have seen face lengths increase steadily from 270 m to 400 m and we’ve had our first top coal caving operation in Australia.

“Looking ahead there is a lot of activity in the coal industry.

“It’s an exciting time for underground people. I can now see a exciting future for longwalling.

“But roadway development is a bottleneck for many mines. ACARP is supporting a number of projects that aim to push roadway development on the improvement curve.”