“Narrabri is continuing to experience difficulty in recruiting sufficient experienced underground miners, however, development rates are being maintained,” Whitehaven said in its June quarter report.

Four continuous miners are operating and 233,000 tonnes of development coal was produced in the 2010-11 financial year, with the 200,000t of coal shipped so far meeting quality expectations.

The delivery of the Caterpillar longwall equipment is due in December while the mine’s coal handling and processing plant is expected to be commissioned in the next few weeks.

The up to 9m Hoskissons seam is known to be gassy and Whitehaven said pre-drainage of the carbon dioxide in this seam was working well.

“Mining conditions underground are excellent and development rates have improved as skills and experience grow and as development has moved away from pit-bottom setup into normal main road and longwall gate road development.

“Some delays continue to be experienced in development as a result of the slower buildup in manning and the late start of the contract for the fourth continuous miner unit.”

But the longwall start-up is still on schedule at current development rates, Whitehaven said.

“Development of the main gate and tail gate roads for the first longwall panel is on the critical path for commencement of longwall mining and progress against schedule is being monitored closely.”

Coal production

The Gunnedah Basin miner ended the June quarter with pleasing results, increasing saleable coal production to 1.48 million tonnes, up 47% year-on-year.

Total coal sales rose by 82% to 1.89Mt, compared to sales of 1.32Mt in the March quarter which was impacted by lower demand from post-quake Japan.

The damage to steelmaking plants in the country also resulted in low metallurgical coal sales of just 0.28Mt for Whitehaven in the June quarter.

But it did achieve an average price of $US200/t for its semi-soft coking coal and pulverised injection coal for this quarter.

Whitehaven is also closer to making a good return from the Vickery project it purchased off Coal & Allied for just $A31.5 million in early 2010.

From total open cut resources of 405Mt, initial mine planning has identified a marketable reserve of 47Mt in just one area.

Planning indicates there is scope for an open cut mine capable of 5Mt per annum run of mine for at least 20 years based on a stripping ratio of less than 10:1.

The company aims to submit an environmental application for this Gunnedah Basin project this year with the view to mining in 2013.

Across its portfolio of mines in the region, Whitehaven is expecting the federal government’s carbon tax to equate to $1.60 for each tonne of coal produced.