The contractor came out of voluntary administration in September and has since raised enough funds to meet all the obligations required from the resulting deed of company arrangement.

“The next phase, as highlighted in earlier announcements, is a further capital raising to move the company beyond current debt support and, contingent upon that, to return as soon as practicable to the Australian stock market,” Bounty chairman Gary Cochrane said at the company’s annual general meeting.

“The board is looking at a number of opportunities to strengthen the balance sheet in preparation for this move.”

The impact of the global financial crisis on steel demand led to production and job cuts in Queensland’s coal industry during the March quarter of 2009.

“This was a year of uneven impact with companies with exposure mostly to New South Wales thermal coal being relatively untouched, while companies like Bounty exposed to Queensland coking coal faced the full brunt of the commodity meltdown,” Cochrane said.

“Abrupt termination of contracts in Queensland and the move to New South Wales with one remaining small contract, redundancy payments and equipment compliance constraints in New South Wales was too much for the company.”

Anglo’s decision to close its Aquila colliery and slash production at its Bundoora mine cost Bounty two key contracts, worth about $40 million in turnover.

Bounty still earns revenue from its contract with the Chain Valley mine but is on the hunt for new business.

“Bounty has existing unutilised equipment and key staff to move quickly in response to new contract opportunities,” Cochrane said.

“Senior Bounty executives are marketing the company’s services and capability to meet this growing need for production capability.”

Bounty commissioned a Stamler continuous haulage system at Aquila only months before losing the contract in January 2009.