The allocations included additional funding of $10.5 million for 56 new projects.

Under the "people" category, ACARP spent $1.55 million on seven occupational health projects, $11.8 million on 54 safety projects and $1.5 million on eight community projects.

In the area of productivity, ACARP dedicated $2.44 million to 22 coal quality projects, $2.98 million on 20 maintenance projects, $11.61 million on 55 productivity projects and $1.36 million on nine resource definition projects.

A total of $10.6 million was spent on environment projects covering rehabilitation, subsidence, waste management and water.

Under the global environment heading $11.22 million was spent on 15 CO2 management projects and $232,000 on five other emissions projects.

Examples of safe work environment research projects completed during the year included developing a technique to locate underground heatings and assist in their containment and the testing of mine vehicles operating in elevated methane levels.

Under social research ACARP looked into the effects of mine subsidence on the community and community engagement techniques.

Productivity projects included real-time feedback on longwall chocks enabling underground longwall operators to reduce roof control problems and increase productivity.