Lewis, who is NuCoal’s managing director, said Nicholls brought over 36 years underground coal mining experience throughout NSW and Queensland to the mine’s management team.

“I have worked with Greg for many years during our time at Xstrata and believe he will make an invaluable contribution to the development and construction of the Doyles Creek project over the next few years,” he said.

Nicholls is a qualified electrical engineer and has spent the past 14 years working with Xstrata in senior engineering and operational roles.

His most recent was at Xstrata’s Beltana longwall mine in the Hunter Valley, one of the highest producing underground mines in NSW.

Before that he was engineering manager then senior site executive at Oaky Creek Coal in Queensland for several years.

Nicholls, who will start at NuCoal on April 4, will be using his experience gained at Xstrata as an integral part of the prefeasibility study team working on the project development at Doyles Creek.

When Lewis left Xstrata to form NuCoal in 2009 he had 15 years experience with the company. He is a qualified coal mine manager and held senior management roles including production manager, mine manager and general manager of underground operations from 2003 to 2008 for Xstrata Coal NSW.

In that role, Lewis was responsible for up to six of Xstrata's operating underground mines in NSW and several projects under construction.

NuCoal decided to start a PFS on Doyles Creek after confirming it could support a 10-year longwall mine producing 4.5-5 million tonnes per annum of semi-soft coking coal.

The average forecast free-on-board cash cost during the first 10 years of the possible 30-year mine is estimated at $60 per tonne excluding royalties with 100% yield, according to the development consent study.

The PFS completion date is currently set at June 2012.