The company, which has made an application to the New South Wales Department of Planning and Infrastructure to modify the existing Part 3A approval for its operations at the colliery in Russell Vale, said it was already receiving benefits of the longwall that it commissioned in the second quarter of this year.

“The new longwall has led to a much safer working environment and an improved production rate for the mine,” the company said.

“Continued longwall operations at the NRE No.1 colliery are linked with longer term economic viability and continuity of employment.”

The modification covers the mining of longwalls 4 and 5 along with “first workings” necessary for developing underground access roadways for proposed longwall panels 6, 7 and 8.

This builds upon the subsidence management plan that has been approved for the mining of longwall 4 and brings all operations under the control of current planning and development legislation.

It is regarded as an intermediate step between the current “preliminary works project” approved last october and the “major works expansion project” which is in the process of being finalised for public exhibition.

“The need to undertake this particular approach is due in part to delays experienced last year in processing these approvals and the difference in scale of each project,” the company said.

The “preliminary works project” has a maximum life of only three years and much of the mining involved, especially the first workings to develop longwalls 4 and 5 has now been completed and further mining areas need to be actively pursued, to ensure operational viability of the mine.

“In seeking approval via a modification, total production from the mine remains capped at 1 million tonnes per annum and all issues concerning the proposal to re‐establish production back to the historical peak of 3Mtpa will be addressed in the ‘major works project’ assessment,” Gujarat said.