The move from Tahmoor to Tahmoor North will almost certainly mean greener pastures for the publicly-listed coal producer, who has experienced a downturn in run of mine and sales over the past year.
The 2003 results were severely impacted by a reduction in coking coal prices for 2002-2003 fiscal year, adverse geological conditions and high longwall maintenance and roof support costs.
The new Tahmoor North area promises a seam greater than two metres, whereas the working height in Tahmoor was 1.6-2.0 metres.
The capacity of the longwall system has been lifted to 3,000-3,500 tonnes per hour compared to 1500tph, and support capacity was increased to 1,128 tonnes from 850 tonnes.
Austral expects increased production from 1.7 million tonnes per annum at Tahmoor to an average of 3.5mtpa from Tahmoor North.
On the back of these positive influences, Pendal predicted a net profit of 15-18 million for the coming year.
