The co-underwriting banks are N M Rothschild & Sons (Australia), ANZ Investment Bank and HSBC Precious Metals Limited. This new funding facility, together with the share placements that raised $30 million earlier in the year, will complete the funding of the Tahmoor North development.
The development program includes the acquisition of a new longwall system, coal preparation plant upgrade and investment in ancillary infrastructure.
Austral managing director Ugo Cario said that the funding is a final step in realising the company’s three year ambition to become the pre-eminent coking coal producer in the Southern Coalfields.
“The purchase o f a state-of-the-art high capacity longwall system and wash plant upgrade together with the considerable infrastructure investment already made over the last two years, will equip Tahmoor as one of the most modern underground mines in Australia with production potential of up to 4Mtpa by 2004,” he said.
Cario said that tenders received for the new longwall system had been very competitive and technical and commercial evaluation of bids was nearing completion. Directors expect to nominate a preferred tenderer later this month.
Cario also advised that production at the Tahmoor mine had returned to pre-changeover levels since the start-up of longwall panel 20 with longwall production continuing on a seven day per week basis. ROM production for October was 192,000t, including recommissioning of the longwall over the first week of the month and clean coal production was 156,000t.
Coal sales during October totalled 139,000t. Confirmed sales to the end of December are currently more than 350,000 tonnes and discussions are continuing with customers regarding shipment of additional tonnage this calendar year.
The company said clean coal recoveries from the preparation plant have improved considerably due to the thicker coal seam and improved quality of coal being mined. Recovery of coking coal from panel 20 is currently averaging more than 15 percentage points higher than the average achieved for the previous longwall panel 19 and is higher than ever achieved at the Tahmoor mine, the company said.
