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. The Ulan West underground mine is currently operating with an expected mine life up until approximately 2031.

During 2019, mining was active within the Ulan West Underground in longwall panel LW5 and headings development commenced for LW6.

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

There is one dedicated reclaim valve for each underground mine and a shared reclaim valve. The reclaim valves deliver coal to the sizing station where it is crushed. The sizing station can send 50mm top size coal to the ROM stockpile, 50mm top size coal to the product stockpiles or 125mm top size coal to the CHPP. From the ROM stockpile there are three reclaim valves that send the coal into a surge bin with two feeders sending coal to the product stockpile. Underground coal can be delivered via the existing open cut conveyor system through a dump hopper surge bin with sizing and trash screen, bypassing the CHPP, to the product coal stockpile at 2000 tonnes per hour.

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