The appointment will come after Rio Tinto chief executive Tom Albanese confirmed that the Kestrel extension project – the company’s largest current coal project – may have to review its capital expenditure and commissioning targets in the future.

It is now due to be commissioned in the second quarter of 2013.

Reporting to the technical services manager, the newly appointed senior mine planning engineer will be responsible for short to medium term planning for the successful underground coal site, according to Rio Tinto’s recruitment arm.

“Kestrel mine is at an exciting stage in the mine life, and will begin the transition to the greenfields mine extension this year,” the company said in its advertising.

“This will present you with the chance to play a key role in the integration of planning systems between the two sites to ensure the long term success of the operations.

“With three direct reports, a key focus of this role will be utilising your extensive experience to mentor and develop your team.”

Some of the core responsibilities of the position include ownership of the site reserve model, operational support for short-term mine planning, reconciliation of production data, and continuous improvement of planning systems and integration with the greenfields project, the company said.

Kestrel, which is located 300 kilometres west of Rockhampton and 50km northeast of Emerald, has marketable reserves of more than 100 million tonnes and produces in excess of 4 million tonnes per annum. The product is both high quality low-ash coking coal and high energy thermal coal.