Newlands Northern in Queensland produced 7.44 million tonnes for the 2009 financial year as the Xstrata mine hit its straps in its northern section.

The mine broke records later in the year, extracting 961,891t from the longwall in May to beat the previous monthly record of 955,049t set in November 2005 by the company’s Beltana operation.

Newlands also posted a weekly record of 251,720t in the week ending May 5, 2009.

Last financial year Northern produced 4.89Mt and came in fourth place.

Taking silver was fellow Xstrata mine Ulan with 6.55Mt. Despite taking second spot, it wasn’t enough to save the fat-face longwall from the knife with an announcement in July that 122 workers from the underground and surface operation would be axed.

Xstrata said the cuts were necessary to align employee numbers with anticipated operating requirements in response to current market conditions.

In third place was Rio Tinto’s consistent high achiever Kestrel with 5.28Mt. Last financial year the mine took sixth place.

Still in Queensland, the Crinum East mine produced 5.06Mt to take fourth place. The BHP Billiton Mitsubishi Alliance mine improved on its 2008 financial year output of 4.14Mt with mining in its new East blocks.

Xstrata’s Oaky North mine was still able to produce 5.01Mt for the 2009 financial year to take out fifth spot, but sister mine Oaky Creek No. 1 only produced 2.79Mt after being idled in December 2008 due to a slump in coking coal demand. The mine was reopened in August.

Making the second New South Wales entrant, Centennial Coal’s Mandalong operation came in at number six with 4.88Mt, despite two longwall changeovers.

Centennial said Mandalong would only have to contend with one changeover in the 2010 financial year and that it was targeting 5.4Mt.

Usual dominator Beltana fell to seventh spot on the production table with 4.71Mt, as operations wind down in preparation for the new Blakefield South mine to take over production.

Beltana registered the highest amount of “other” output for the 2009 financial year at 739,200t, from the Blakefield development.

Blakefield will replace Beltana in the first half of the 2010 calendar year.

Anglo Coal’s Moranbah North mine in Queensland came in eighth place with 4.61Mt. This month, Moranbah will ramp up production from its new longwall, which features 148 by 1750-tonne, 2m-wide Joy Mining Machinery roof supports.

The massive chocks have been brought in to combat the tougher geological conditions deeper underground, with the new equipment expected to maintain Moranbah’s current annual level of production.

BMA’s Broadmeadow mine came in at ninth spot with 4.41Mt, while Anglo’s Grasstree operation snuck in at number 10 with 4.19Mt.

Overall, Australia’s longwall mines produced 98,634,700t of coal for the year, compared with 95,615,100t in the 2008 financial year.

New South Wales upped its output by 1.5% to 55.47Mt and Queensland increased 5.3% to 43.17Mt.