At the Coaltrans conference in London this week, Xstrata chief executive Peter Freyberg gave an update on the company’s Australian projects.

He said Blakefield South was 88% complete as of November and that the mine was targeting 4Mt per annum of thermal coal production.

The $A375 million mine will replace the nearby Beltana operation – which produced 6.4 million tonnes last year – in the first half of 2010.

On the establishment of Xstrata Rail, an ambitious plan for the company to haul its own coal, Freyberg said Xstrata had formed an operating alliance with Freightliner Australia to operate its new trains under an exclusive 10-year agreement.

Xstrata plans to initially purchase three trains with the package consisting of 10 locomotives and 300 wagons.

This rolling stock is expected to provide up to 12Mtpa of rail capacity.

The company’s billion-dollar Mangoola (formerly Anvil Hill) open cut project in the Upper Hunter Valley was 7% complete last month, with the 9Mtpa mine to kick off in 2012.

The Ulan West project, a longwall expansion to the Ulan mining complex near Mudgee, is also expected to start thermal coal production in 2012.

With Ulan West targeting 7Mtpa, Xstrata aims to get New South Wales government approval in the first half of 2010 and then to carry out construction through to the second half of 2011.

Xstrata’s Ravensworth North project is targeting 7Mtpa and is expected to have synergies with Ravensworth Underground.

Construction is slated for the second half of 2010 to the first half of 2013 before production, which will be 70% thermal coal and 30% semi-soft coking coal.