This is even more impressive when combined with its sister mine at Oaky Creek No 1, which produced 4.7Mt, according to data provided by Coal Services.

One of the big improvers for the period and New South Wales’ best performer was Centennial Coal’s Mandalong mine near Lake Macquarie, which produced 5.5Mt.

Kestrel, Rio Tinto Coal’s only longwall mine in Queensland, produced just over 5Mt of coal for the period.

Peabody Energy’s North Wambo mine in NSW had a very solid year, producing 4.2Mt, while Xstrata’s Ulan mine in NSW also produced 4.2Mt for the year.

Xstrata’s other mine in Queensland Newlands Northern produced 4Mt, and BHP Billiton’s Dendrobium mine in the Illawarra was not far behind on 3.9Mt.

One of the big improvers for the year was Xstrata’s Tahmoor colliery in NSW which was formerly plagued with industrial problems. Its production for the year was 2.2Mt.

One of the underachievers was Vale Australia’s Integra mine, which was forced to suspend production by the NSW Minister for Resources after an incident last year. Ventilation problems at Integra led to a build-up of methane to dangerous levels which prompted the NSW government to order the temporary closure of the mine while investigations were carried out.

Integra’s production for the year was 703,600t from its longwall.