The Ulan West underground mines the lower 3 metres of the Ulan seam for thermal coal.

The Ulan Seam generally dips uniformly towards the north-east at between one and two degrees, and the seam thickness averages 5 to 7 metres throughout the Ulan Mine Complex. It consists of ten separate plies, which are consolidated into four working sections within the open cut. The working sections are separated by thin claystone horizons.

The Ulan West Mine entry is via the 6 portals directly into the Ulan seam via the Ulan West Box Cut. The Ulan West Mine Plan has main headings in the south of the mine plan with approximately 400m wide longwall panels to the North. Development of roadways is completed using continuous miners with shuttle cars and conveyors to remove the coal. Ulan West will utilise standard longwall mining methods and target the economic portion of the Ulan Coal Seam. The longwall face is installed at the northern end of the panel and mining progresses south toward the main headings to complete the longwall extraction. Panel extraction timing is outlined in MOP Plan 3A.

Underground mining operations included development of roadways for LW6, LW7, LW8 and the main headings consistent with first workings approvals. Secondary extraction of LW518 commenced 1 March 2019 and was completed on 19 June 2020. LW6 commenced extraction on 11 August 2020. LW6 had extracted 1290m by the end of 2020.

ROM coal is delivered to the HUB Stockpile via conveyors from Ulan West underground mine.

Removing the bottom 3 metres of the Ulan Seam reduces the need to wash the coal; approximately < 30% of run of mine coal from the underground requires washing. All underground coal is conveyed to the surface stockpiles by the coal clearance conveyor system. Underground coal that does not require washing is crushed and conveyed directly to the product stockpiles in preparation for railing offsite. The higher ash coal is trucked to the coal wash plant reclaim stockpile where it is picked up by a reclaimer and conveyed to the coal handling preparation plant (CHPP).

CHPP has a flexible 1800 tph raw coal receivals system which allows for either an individual, or any combination of, direct plant feed, raw coal stockpiling or reclamation from the stockpile by a bucket wheel reclaimer.

A 1000 tonne surge bin distributes feed to a nominal capacity 1200 tph between two mod ........