The Mining Lease covers an area of 1,446 hectares and has been granted for a 25 year term.

Mining Lease 80201 approval extends the life of the Baralaba North mine and, in conjunction with the Company’s Environmental Authority EPML00223213 approved on 1 February 2016, will allow Cockatoo to produce coal at the Baralaba North mine at a rate of up to 4.1 million tonnes per annum of run-of-mine coal or approximately 3.5Mtpa of saleable coal.

“An updated reserve estimate over ML 80169, ML 80170 and ML 80201 will be completed in conjunction with the development of new mine plans for the re-start of the Baralaba North mine and announced accordingly,” the company said.

In January Cockatoo Coal administrators revealed that the ramp-up of coal production from Baralaba was continuing although the company was placed in administration last November.

The Baralaba mine achieved record sales for the December quarter of 463,000 tonnes which was almost double the previous record.

Operations continued to ramp up with the introduction of the second large excavator fleet during November to enable increasing coal sales to be met during 2016.

During the quarter, approximately 1.47Mbcm of in-pit dumping occurred in the Baralaba North Pit and backfilling of the Baralaba Central Void began with 132Kbcm dumped there.

The approvals timeline for the Baralaba Expansion Project remains on target for the scheduled increase in production from 1 million tonnes per annum to 3.5Mtpa.