Yancoal chairman Baocai Zhang said in the company's annual report that to improve maintenance performance and reduce maintenance costs, Yancoal developed and implemented an equipment operation improvement and optimisation project based on each site having its own plan.

"Yancoal continues its diversification strategy through the potential development of renewable energy projects and expansion into minerals and commodities beyond coal," he said.

"As part of this strategy, Yancoal started assessing two renewable energy projects.

"A feasibility study has begun into the Stratford Renewable Energy Hub, which could include pumped hydropower and solar facilities, and a memorandum of inderstanding was executed to study the application of innovative kinetic energy storage technology at the former Austar coal mine."

Zhang said that if developed, both these projects had the potential to increase Yancoal's self-sufficiency for power and to deliver diversification for the business.

"Despite a particularly difficult period over the past few years, nevertheless Yancoal has delivered some monumental ‘first time' achievements in 2022 that need to be recognised, such as the repayment of external interest-bearing loan debt," he said.