In its update, Yancoal said the relocation to A8 was scheduled and the panel would provide up to 12 months of production.

“Recommencement of production is in accordance with the mine’s operating schedule and saleable coal production is expected to be within the previously forecasted range for 2014,” the company said yesterday.

“The investigation into the underground incident on April 15 2014 is ongoing and development works have not recommenced at this time.”

The Australia-listed subsidiary of Yanzhou Coal Mining also said it was continuing to review all options for development-related personnel, which included potential reassignment to other Austar operations or to Yancoal’s other coal mines.

New South Wales authorities have considered geotechnical conditions, mine design and strata controls as part of their investigations into the April wall collapse with a gas outburst already ruled out.

At the time of the incident, seven workers were operating a bolter miner and shuttle car to develop a gate road for a future longwall panel.

“This particular heading is in a geologically disturbed zone near an upthrow fault and shear zone,” Mine Safety Investigation Unit acting manager Steve Orr said in a report last month.

“The workers were mining toward the upthrow fault when the incident happened.”

Two of the workers were on the left hand side of the bolter miner when a major burst of coal from the rib occurred.

Rib material engulfed both men, who died at the scene.

The Austar mine is one of the deepest longwall operations in the country with the incident taking place at about 555m below the surface.

Panels A7-A10 are all part of Austar’s approved stage three plans to produce up to 3.6 million tonnes run-of-mine per annum.