Detailed in an investor presentation yesterday, Anglo said the Callide and Dartbrook assets were “available for sale now”

Anglo’s coal chief Seamus French said construction of the Grosvenor longwall project was “progressing well”

The project famously used tunnel boring machine technology in its development. French said it was the first time an earth pressure balancing machine was used to drive a drift in underground coal.

He also said development was ahead of plan and on a critical path while a technology partnership with original equipment maker Joy aims to make Grosvenor a “longwall of the future”.

While it’s not publicly known how far ahead of plan the development is, Anglo is aiming to commission the Grosvenor longwall in 2016 with the mine targeting 5 million tonnes per annum of hard coking coal output.

Anglo’s third attempt to get New South Wales environmental approval for its job-saving Drayton South extension project is underway, with French saying the priority is to submit the new plan in the March quarter and secure approval in the September quarter next year.

In responding to the ongoing coal market downturn, Anglo revealed it reduced headcounts across its Australian open cut and underground operations by 17% from 2012-2014.

In terms of the longwall operations, Anglo said its new operating model had delivered 120-140% productivity uplift and a 61% unit cost reduction.

The operating model also clocked up 20% productivity uplift and an 8% cost reduction from its surface coal mines.

Anglo also used the investor briefing to reveal it would sell off global assets to reduce its debt which is expected to peak between $US13.4-14 billion ($16-16.8 billion) in 2015.

"We have identified a number of assets that are likely to deliver greater value under different ownership, enabling us to concentrate our resources on our most attractive priority assets," Anglo CEO Mark Cutifani told ABC.

"A number of sales processes are underway. However, our value hurdles will need to be met prior to divestment."