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 coal resource at the DCM is located within the Permian aged Gloucester Basin in NSW. The DCM is located in the southern closure of the main synclinal structure of the Gloucester Basin and is associated with the coal bearing strata of the Dewrang Group. The Dewrang Group comprises three main stratigraphic units, namely: Mammy Johnsons Formation; Weismantels Formation; and Duralie Road Formation.

The coal seams mined at the DCM include:
• the Weismantel Seams;
• the Clareval Seams; and
• the Cheerup Seams.

The underlying basement rocks are principally volcanics of Early Permian (i.e. Alum Mountain Volcanics) and Carboniferous age that were folded during formation of the Gloucester Basin. The Early Permian and Carboniferous volcanic rocks are typically erosion resistant and form the more prominent ridges to the east and west of the DCM.

The Stratford Duralie operation consists of the Stratford and Duralie open cut mines.

Duralie Coal Mine consists of an open-cut, truck and excavator mine producing run of mine (ROM) coal, which is railed to the Stratford Mining Complex (SMC) and processed at the SMC Coal Handling and Processing Plant (CHPP).

The operations extract ROM coal from the Weismantel and Clareval seams at the base of the Gloucester Coal Measures. The deposit forms a synclinal structure with the open cut area located at the southernmost crop line within the main axis of the Gloucester Basin. The operation is now situated on the west limb of the syncline with seams dipping at about 50 degrees east. Mining is undertaken within ML1427 and of ML1646 and includes the extension of the Weismantel pit to the north west and the inclusion of the Clareval seam parallel and to the west of the Weismantel seam.

Dips within the deposit vary from a shallow 5 degrees to an almost vertical profile. Consequently, a method of horizontal 3m to 4m benches is used as the primary extraction method. An average of 5m of free dig material is generally experienced at Duralie after which all waste material generally requires blasting.

No mining activities were conducted in the 2019/2020 reporting period. Mining in the Clareval pit was completed during September 2017. Mining of ROM coal within the Weismantel pit ceased in October 2018. Clearing in advance of mining has now been completed up to the approved disturbance limit in both Weismantel and Clareval. Approximately 400kt of ROM coal is remaining in the Weismantel pit and is intended to be extracted between 2020 to 2021.

During the reporting period DCPL complied with the approved operating hours. Mining operations are permitted 7 days per week, however no mining was undertaken during 2019/20. During the reporting period PAF rehandle and rehabilitation works were undertaken on day shift during Monday to Friday with no weekend work. Rehabilitation activities occurred during Q4 2019 and Q1 2020. PAF rehandle operations occurred during May and June 2020.

SMC consists of an open-cut mine which utilises truck and excavator mining methods to produce ROM coal. ROM coal is processed at the CHPP and transported via train on the North Coast Railway to the

Port of Newcastle for distribution to the export market. Mining activities approved under SSD-4966 were commenced on 4 April 2018. The following milestones were achieved during the reporting period:
- Mining continued in the BRN Open Cut;
- Mining in the Avon North Open Cut continued with the pit progressing towards the south;
- Mining recommenced in the Roseville West Open Cut in November 2019;
- Construction works for the Stratford Eat Open Cut commenced in August 2019; and
- Construction of the Stratford Main Pit flood bund commenced in May 2019 and was completed in August 2019.

Mining operations are permitted 7 days per week. Operational time restrictions apply as prescribed in SSD-4966

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 stockpi ........