Haggarty’s appointment comes in the wake of the resignation of Rob Stewart.

Haggarty has been a non-executive director of Whitehaven since May last year and was managing director of Excel Coal until its sale to Peabody Energy in 2006.

Duncan will take up the position of general manager of Whitehaven subsidiary and longwall development Narrabri on November 3.

He has extensive experience in the development and operation of large longwall coal mines including his most recent position as general manager of the Austar longwall top coal caving operation in the Hunter Valley, as well as senior management positions with Roche, Anglo Coal and Springvale.

Brian Cullen has been appointed Whitehaven technical services general manager, commencing November 3.

Cullen has previously held positions of technical services manager at Xstrata’s Ulan longwall mine and has also been an independent mining engineering consultant.

Austen Perrin has been appointed as chief financial officer and will manage the transition of Whitehaven’s corporate and accounting services from Brisbane to Sydney and Gunnedah.

Perrin was formerly with Asciano, Toll NZ and Toll Holdings.

Andy Plummer has been appointed as an executive director of Whitehaven.

In addition to these senior management appointments, Whitehaven has retained Allan Davies to provide support to the executive directors and general management team in the areas of mining operations and project development.