Produces a medium rank bituminous thermal coal.

Mining and processing operations at Mt Arthur Coal continued 24 hours a day, seven days a week during the reporting period. Mining continued within the Ayredale, Calool, Roxburgh, Saddlers and Windmill open cut pits. Thiess, a subsidiary of the CIMIC Group, operates under a total services contract to mine the Ayredale and Roxburgh pits, located in the southern areas of the Mt Arthur Coal mine. Overburden and interburden material was removed by excavator/shovel and transported via rear dump truck to overburden emplacements, including visual dumps 4 to 5 (VD4 to VD5), contingency dumps 1 to 5 (CD1 to CD5), Out Of Pit Dump North (OP1N), conveyor corridor dump (CC1) and Saddlers dump. Raw coal was extracted by excavator and transported to the CHPP by rear dump truck.

During FY22, mining occurred in the Windmill, Calool, Roxburgh, Ayredale and Saddlers pits. Mining has occurred at a lesser intensity than the maximum rate of extraction approved by the Project Approval. Overburden was placed on the conveyor corridor, CD areas, VD areas, Saddlers North and Belmont. During this three-year term, approximately 65 million tonnes of ROM coal is planned to be mined using truck and shovel and/or excavator methods for an equivalent 47.4 million tonnes of product coal. This method is consistent with current and previous site open cut operations.

During this AFP period, mining is proposed to continue within the extended pit shell of Mt Arthur, consisting of:
• Windmill Pit;
• Calool Pit;
• Roxburgh Pit;
• Ayredale Pit; and
• Saddlers Pit

Prior to excavation of a new open cut strip, pre-stripping operations ensure that natural resources such as vegetation and topsoil are cleared and, where appropriate, recovered for subsequent use in post-mining rehabilitation. Rock strata overlying coal resources (overburden) is drilled and blasted to fracture the rock and facilitate overburden excavation. Hydraulic excavators and electric rope shovels then excavate and load blasted overburden into large haul trucks. These trucks transport the overburden material to designated emplacement areas.

After removing the overburden, the exposed coal seam is mined using hydraulic excavators and loaders. The ROM coal extracted is delivered by haul trucks to either the hopper bins that feed into the CHPP or to the ROM coal stockpiles. After crushing to size and processing to remove impurities, coal is stockpiled prior to transport from site by rail.

During this three year term approximately 366 million bank cubic metres of overburden has been identified for transportation and placement by dump trucks. Emplacement areas are generally located within the open cut pit shell on the low wall side of the active pit. However there will be movement to HW (Belmont, OP1N and SDn) dumps.

Beneficiation facilities: coal handling, preparation, washing plants. Nominal capacity: in excess of 23 Mtpa.

The majority of coal is crushed and washed, prior to export markets.

Coal handling and processing is undertaken within the centralised coal handling and preparation plant (CHPP) located within Mining Lease ML1487. ROM coal extracted by the approved open cut operations is delivered by truck to either the ROM coal bins or the CHPP ROM coal stockpile. Following processing at the CHPP, coal is loaded onto trains via the rail loading facility for delivery to the export market. Coarse reject material will continue to be co-disposed within overburden emplacement areas or utilised in the construction of stockpile pads, roads or other infrastructure. Fine reject (tailings) will continue to be pumped from the CHPP to the existing approved Tailings Storage Facility (TSF)