Bathurst managing director Hamish Bohannan said the contractor would mobilise to the site sometime during this quarter.

The company is anticipating the room and pillar type mine to be in production at the end of 2012.

Coalbrookdale will produce at an initial rate of 150,000 tonnes per annum, increasing to 250,000tpa by 2013.

The mine will be located on the Denniston Plateau in New Zealand’s South Island, and will be Bathurst’s first underground coal mine.

Speaking to companyinsight.net.au, Bohannan said it was also progressing mediation discussions with the Fairdown-Whareatea Residents Association Incorporated who are opposing the location of the stockpiles and associated infrastructure for the proposed Escarpment hard coking coal mine.

“We are gaining confidence from the process, the main objective of which is to achieve a net environmental and conservation gain,” he said.

“This will be done by world’s best practice rehabilitation at the mine site, predator control and contributions towards the upkeep of the Heaphy Track even though this is outside our mining boundaries."

The West Coast Environmental Network Incorporated is also appealing the mine’s development.

Escarpment will initially produce 650,000tpa of coal with the aim of ramping up to 2Mtpa.