The coal resource at the SMC is located within the Permian aged Gloucester Basin in NSW. The SMC is located in the central eastern flank of the north-south trending synclinal structure of the Gloucester Basin. In this area, a thick sequence of Carboniferous volcanics is overlain by late Permian sedimentary strata including coal seams. The Permian succession is divided into the following three groups (oldest to youngest):
• Stroud Volcanics;
• Dewrang Group; and
• Gloucester Coal Measures.

The Cloverdale, Roseville, Marker, Bowens Road and Avon Seams have been previously mined at the SMC. Coal seams in the project area are generally of constant thicknesses except to the east where thrust faulting has thickened and repeated strata, which is further complicated by the steeply dipping syncline structure.

The Stratford Mining Complex is an open cut coal mining operation located in the Gloucester Basin approximately 100 kilometres north of Newcastle in New South Wales.

The open cut mining areas would involve supporting infrastructure such as haul roads, bunding, soil stockpiles, hardstands and water management structures and have been designed to integrate with the existing Stratford Mining Complex operations and minimise the amount of additional infrastructure required.

Coal is processed in a 600 tonnes per hour (tph) coal handling and processing plant (CHPP) with coarse coal (i.e. 50mm down to 1mm) treated using dense medium cyclones (50mm to 1.5mm) and “teeter bed” separator/spirals (1.5mm to 0.4mm) and fine coal using floatation (0.4mm to <0.1mm). The CHPP operates on a two shift, 5 days per week basis. Feed to the CHPP is by front end loader based on blending of coal plies from the ROM stockpile.