The company, which last week refuted claims that it is participating in the sale process being run by Anglo American Plc in relation to its Australian coal assets, is instead focusing on developing its main Narrabri asset.

A Bucyrus longwall ordered last September, which has a 300m wide longwall face and a capacity of 3,500 tonnes per hour, is expected to be installed in the second half of next year.

The wall is currently under manufacture, with the shield design testing currently being carried out. The longwall has been designed and is being manufactured so that it can be retrofitted with top coal caving equipment.

During the first block, Whitehaven will undertake studies of the caving characteristics of the top half of the coal seam to evaluate its suitability for top coal caving.

If the caving proves to be suitable, the company will retrofit the longwall system with the equipment required to convert the longwall to top coal caving.

The seam has an average height of 9m and the company will be cutting 4.2m during the first and second longwall blocks.

Whitehaven earlier this month confirmed that the full face of coal has been reached in two of the three access drifts at Narrabri as it prepares to install the first continuous mining unit underground.

Initial production using continuous miners will be 0.7Mtpa.

A rail loop and associated coal handling and processing equipment have been constructed to facilitate the transport of coal from the project site to Newcastle for export.

Stage Two plans for the project include the production of an additional 5.3Mtpa from longwall mining.

An environmental assessment is currently being carried out for Stage Two.