The coal resource at the Stratford Mining Complex (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 target coal seams at the SMC are located within the Craven and Avon Subgroups of the Gloucester Coal Measures and within the Dewrang Group, including:
• Marker [M7] Seams;
• Bindaboo Seams;
• Deards Seams;
• Cloverdale Seams;
• Roseville Seams;
• Bowens Road Seams;
• Avon Seams;
• Glenview Seams;
• Marker 2 Seams;
• Triple Coal Seams;
• Cheer-up Seams;
• Clareval Seams; and
• Rombo Coal Seams.

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.

Stratford Mining Complex (SMC) consists of an open-cut mine which utilises truck and excavator mining methods to produce ROM coal.

The following key activities were undertaken during the reporting period:
• Mining continued in the BRN Open Cut and the Roseville West Open Cut within the existing footprints;
• Mining in the Avon North Open Cut advanced to the full proposed mining footprint;
• Mining in the Stratford East Open Cut advanced to the south with further development of the waste emplacement, water division systems and haul road network; and
• Reprocessing of coal from both the Western Co-disposal area continued during the reporting period.

Mining operations are permitted 7 days per week.

BRNOC
The BRNOC is an existing mining area located north-west of the Stratford Main Pit. Mining of the BRNOC pit will be completed during 2021. Progressive backfilling of the BRNOC has commenced. Access to the BRNOC will continue to be via an existing haul road north of the Stratford Main Pit.

Avon North Open Cut
The Avon North Open Cut is an existing mining area located north-east of the Stratford Main Pit. Approximately 4.3 Mt of ROM coal will be mined from the Avon North Open Cut over the life of the pit, targeting the Avon, Marker 2, Glenview, Triple Coal and Rombo groups of seams.

Access to the Avon North Open Cut will be via the existing haul road east of the BRNOC Pit to the toe of the Northern Waste Emplacement Extension.

Once mining operations in the Avon North Open Cut are completed, the void will be used as a contained water storage and ultimately for co-disposal of CHPP rejects (if required) once the Stratford Main Pit co-disposal Area void is filled.

Roseville West Pit
The Roseville West Pit is an existing mining area. Mining in the existing footprint of the Roseville West Pit will continue throughout the Mining Operations Plan and Rehabilitation Management Plan (MOP/RMP) term. Backfilling the northern extent of the Roseville West Pit with waste will commence during the MOP/RMP term.

Access to the Roseville West Pit will continue to be via the existing haul roads to the south-east. A new haul road access will also be constructed between the BRNOC and Roseville West Pit. This haul road will cross Avondale Creek and will involve construction of a new culvert.

Stratford East Open Cut
Approximately 9.6 Mt of ROM coal would be mined from the Stratford East Open Cut over the life of the pit, targeting the Cheer-up and Clareval Seams.

During the MOP/RMP term, mining of the Stratford East Open Cut will be continued with development extending south up to the approved extent of the pit. Backfilling of the northern extent of the Stratford East Open Cut will also commence during the MOP/RMP term, with the northern most extent shaped to its final landform and revegetation established by the end of the MOP/RMP term.

Access to the Stratford East Open Cut would continue to be via a haul road constructed along the southern and western toe of the Stratford Waste Emplacement.

Once mining operations in the Stratford East Open Cut are complete, the void will be partially backfilled with waste. A void will remain at the southern end of the open cut and would be a permanent contained water storage. The catchment area of the Stratford East Open Cut will be minimised with provision of permanent perimeter bunds, up catchment diversions and/or bunds/embankment walls.

Western Co-Disposal Area
The Western Co-disposal Area is no longer used for the disposal of CHPP rejects. The extent of the Western Co-disposal Area is contained by perimeter bunding and diversion drains.

Recovery of historical CHPP rejects from the Western Co-disposal Area will continue to occur during the MOP/RMP term.

Stratford Main Pit
Mining of the Stratford Main Pit has been completed. The Stratford Main Pit will continue to be used as a CHPP rejects material disposal area, water storage and waste emplacement area during the MOP/RMP term including receiving and transfer of water.

ROM coal is initially handled at the Duralie Coal Handling Plant (CHP). Rock greater than 140 mm is removed from ROM coal using a rotary breaker at the CHP. The separated rock is conveyed to a rejects bin from which it is loaded out and trucked to be buried on site as potentially acid forming (PAF) waste. The ROM coal is then transferred via conveyor to a train loadout bin and railed to the SMC via a shuttle train.

The SMC Coal Handling and Processing Plant (CHPP) produces a coking coal and a range of thermal coal products for export.

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 stockpil ........