The Millennium project area lies within the Permo-Triassic Bowen Basin. The Bowen Basin consists of 10 kilometre (km) thick sequences of volcanic, shallow marine and terrestrial sediments and is categorised back-arc to foreland basin.

Coal seams occur within the Rangal Coal Measures which are Late Permian in age. These seams dip to the west at approximately 4 - 7 degrees within the Millennium Lease and 4 – 10 degrees to the east at Mavis Downs.

The coal seams of interest found within the Project area are as follows – Leichhardt and Vermont Upper 1. Additional seams were intersected in the historic drilling and in part analysed these were the M seam and plies of the Vermont Lower Seams.

The target seams have a cumulative thickness of approximately 7 m across the deposit.

• Open cut mining method is planned to be conventional strip mining where the floor dip is suitable, and terrace mining where the floor dip is steeper. Waste will be drilled and blasted before being removed by bench using one large 600 t and one 350 t hydraulic excavators and rear dump trucks. The mined waste will be backfilled in the voids behind the active mining operations. No ex-pit dump needed to be created within the mining schedule.

• Open cut coal is planned to be mined by one 350 t hydraulic excavators and hauled by suitable matched rear dump trucks to a ROM stockpile pad before being processed by a coal handling and processing plant.

• Augers will be deployed for mining Leichhardt seams in Mavis Downs and both Leichhardt and Vermont seams in Millennium in area where it has not been mined by highwall miners previously.

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