La Jagua is a multi-seam coal deposit in a northeast-oriented synclinal basin structure, approximately 5km long and 2km wide. The deposit dips steeply on the northwest and southeast flanks. The centre of the deposit is flatter with dips up to 5 degrees. On the basis of borehole and mining records to date, two faults have been identified within the deposit, La Victoria and La Nueva faults. La Victoria is a southwest-trending normal fault with a throw up to 20 m parallel to and close to the syncline axis. La Nueva Fault has been interpreted from drill hole data and occurs to the west of La Victoria Fault and has a throw up to 10 m. A significant topographic feature which impacts on the open cut strip ratio is the hill in the southern half of the deposit (Cerro de Piedra).

A total of 23 seams with a cumulative thickness of approximately 35 m occur within the La Jagua deposit sub cropping along the western and eastern limbs of the syncline. Seam M0 is the uppermost coal seam and Seam M45 is at the base of the main economic sequence – a stratigraphic interval approximately 200 m thick. Seam M15 is the thickest coal seam (average 5m) and seams M2 and M3 contain a thin intra-seam stone band.

The La Jagua coal deposit consists of 23 seams and can be characterised as a deep, multiple seam, sub-cropping and steep to moderately dipping synclinal basin. The dipping nature of the coal structure makes it suitable for excavation using conventional open cut mining methods that initially excavate low strip ratio sub-cropping coal followed by deeper coal mining that progresses from one end of the deposit to the other.

A combinatation of small and large hydraulic excavators (100 t - 550 t) are used to load overburden into off highway rear dump trucks which haul the material to a combination of in-pit and ex-pit dumps.

Coal mining is by a combination of hydraulic excavators working in tandem with dozers. Medium sized backhoes excavate the overburden and interburden to near the contacts between waste and coal. Smaller dozers or flat bladed small hydraulic excavators will clean the waste materials from the coal contact. The care taken in this method determines the amount of both loss and dilution. Finally, excavators dig the waste material which has been heaped by the dozers.

MMC/MBGS observed that all ROM coal is crushed at each mine and is the loaded into trucks or trains without further processing. Coal is sold “unwashed”, meaning there is no metallurgical treatment required to achieve a saleable product. The yield is therefore 100%.