June quarter production results for New South Wales Tahmoor mine was 192,000 ROM tonnes, down from 602,000 ROM tonnes in the 2002 period.

Despite lower figures, Austral said it was happy with the production levels considering normal operations were disrupted by the installation of new equipment at its Tahmoor Colliery.

“A period of low production from April through to August had previously been advised as a result of the upgrade of the coal preparation plant, a scheduled longwall changeover and accelerated production from the previous longwall panel,” Austral said.

The Australian company experienced difficulties in the extraction of the longwall panel 20, which was completed in May. Adverse geotechnical conditions at the end of the panel and groundwater drainage issued on the longwall face slowed the retreat rate and caused intermittent delays on the main drift belt, extending the completion time.

To address the water issue, Austral have completed a number of water sumps and proposed de-watering installations.

Recently longwall equipment has been fully dismantled and stowed with a number of component parts subject to limited overhaul in preparation for extraction of panel 21, the last to be extracted with the current equipment.

Mine development has remained behind schedule for the quarter, increasing to 3,244 metres from 1,032 in the March quarter. Development was below budget due to contractors Roche Mining continuing grunching in both headings of the longwall panel 21. Development shortfalls due to a delayed start of the contract and a longer that anticipated mobilisation and establishment period are yet to be recovered.

“Although an additional Tahmoor development crew has been established to assist with this development, longwall production will not commence until late August, about two weeks later than originally planned,” Austral said.

“Importantly, the amount of grunching likely to be required in the future has significantly reduced by changes to the mining regulations.”

During the period, development units have been focussed on establishment of the mine’s panels and initial excavations for the conveyor systems. The company said although development performance had improved it would not be optimised until services to the panels were fully established with the next two weeks.

Due to better than expected mining conditions, the operations has been able to reduce roof support to 6 x 1.8 metre bolts per metre advance in lieu of 8 x 2.1, which will help in increasing development rates.

Development of the first Tahmoor North panel remains within the schedule for a March 2004 start-up.

A total of 21,853 metres of in seam and exploration drilling were completed in the quarter with contractors employed to ensure drilling schedules remained on time.

“Approximately 50% of this first Tahmoor North panel has been drilled and results to date continue to be positive with low gas readings reported from exploratory samples across the length of the panel.”

On a marketing front, the company experienced problems, with sales restricted to 211,000 tonnes due to a delay of a Japanese shipment. Austral said stocks of 191,000 tonnes were sufficient to meet scheduled shipments until the preparation plant resumes in late July and the start up of the longwall in late August.