Austar stands down workers
YANCOAL has stood down almost 200 workers at its century-old Austar project in NSW as legal proceedings continue following two coal bursts at the mine earlier this year.
In late May, the NSW Resources Regulator stopped all underground longwall production activities when a second burst saw an estimated 60 tonnes of coal ejected from the longwall face.
Yancoal – which currently is seeking a dual listing on the Hong Kong Exchange – is awaiting the outcome of an external merits review to the Industrial Relations Commission, which will determine whether the mine can return to production.
Yancoal Australia chief executive Reinhold Schmidt said it would send workers to its other underground operations, where possible, and retain skeleton crews to maintain the operation in accordance with compliance requirements.
“We have worked to redeploy the majority of the Austar workforce to the Ashton, Abel and Moolarben underground mines in the interests of providing continued employment for our people,” Mr Schmidt said.
“Until all legal avenues have been exhausted and we can re-enter the mine to move the longwall, we are unable to continue proposed longwall activity.”
Yancoal said it “unfortunately” did not have an estimated date for a return to production.
The closure was not expected to have a significant impact on annual production.
In 2017, the mine produced 1.9 million tonnes of saleable coking coal production out of group production of 31.45mt.
However, the mine was still of value to Yancoal, being one of its few projects producing high value coking coal.