PERTH (miningweekly.com) – The board of coal miner Whitehaven Coal has approved the investment to start early mining at the Vickery coal deposit, in New South Wales.
Whitehaven on Friday told shareholders that the early mining at the deposit would comprise of a low capital project that would use surplus coal processing and washing infrastructure capacity at the Gunnedah coal handling and preparation plant (CHPP) as well as existing road haulage, rail and port capacity.
The miner said that some A$150-million will be invested to overhaul mining equipment, establish water management infrastructure, construct modest site facilities and establish a box cut. The cost estimate includes A$50-million of mining costs associated with development of the box cut.
Approximately A$120-million of the A$150-million of expenditure is required for the full-scale Vickery project. A decision around further investment and start of full-scale operations at Vickery will be considered by the board later in 2023, Whitehaven said.
Meanwhile, construction for early-start mining is expected to start in June 2023.
As operations at Werris Creek winds down in 2024, equipment and staff would become available to transfer to Vickery. First coal is expected around mid-2024 with production ramping up in 2025.
Following ramp-up, run-of-mine production is expected to reach between 1.2-million and 1.3-million tonnes a year.
Whitehaven told shareholders that the company was continuing to refine capital and mine plans for Vickery to be shovel ready in 2024.