Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Gujarat NRE To Recommence Longwall Mining At Wongawilli

Longwall mining is set to recommence at the Wongawilli Mine near Wollongong in New South Wales, owned by Gujarat NRE Minerals.

The hard coking coal mine is in final stages of being recommissioned. Production is planned to increase from a modest 179,000 tonnes in 2008/09 to 1,500,000 tonnes per annum.

Demand has picked up again for Australian hard coking coal. Nowhere is this more apparent than demand in the Indian market.

Gujarat NRE Chairman Arun Kumar Jagatramka said new longwall equipment has been refurbished and re-installed at the new longwall face. The equipment last operated in March 2007.

The company bought the mine from BHP Billiton in 2007, resuming coal production and shipping first coal from the mine to Port Kembla in April 2008.

Gujarat also operates the NRE No. 1 coal mine in NSW. A total of 670,000 million tonnes of hard coking coal was produced in 2008/09.

Total production from both mines is targeted by Gujarat, at 2.5 million tonnes of hard coking coal over the next 12 months

Source: Proactive Investors

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