Centennial Coal has announced it is cutting 30 jobs at its Myuna colliery in the Newcastle coal field of the Australian state of New South Wales, the company said in a statement Wednesday.
An additional 21 members of Myuna colliery's workforce, which numbers 255 people, are being transferred to another company mine, Mandalong, the company said.
Centennial Coal, which is 100%-owned by Thailand coal company Banpu, said Myuna colliery's geological conditions had become challenging, and coupled with the "ongoing economic downturn in the mining sector" had led to the workforce being restructured.
The Myuna underground mine has been in operation for nearly 40 years, and the operation is focused on extracting thermal coal from three different seams that run beneath Lake Macquarie, located about 20 miles south of the port of Newcastle.
All of Myuna's thermal coal is supplied by conveyor to the local Eraring power station, Centennial said.
The underground mine has a production capacity for 2 million mt/year of thermal coal, and 1.6 million mt was extracted in 2011, according to company information.
SPRINGVALE MINE
Separately, about 230 workers have returned to their jobs at Centennial's 50%-owned Springvale mine.
The majority of Springvale's 300-strong workforce had been stood down by the company in August because of uncertainty over the outcome of planning approvals required for the mine's proposed expansion.
The workers were able to return to their jobs on October 15 when the Australian environment minister Greg Hunt gave his approval for the mine to stay open through to 2028, thereby allowing the extraction of an additional 4.5 million mt/year of coal from the mine's Lithgow seam.
The Springvale underground mine in the New South Wales Western coal field supplies thermal coal to the Mt Piper power station in New South Wales, and some Springvale coal is supplied to overseas customers through the Port Kembla coal terminal.
The mine produces about 2.7 million mt/year of thermal coal and has a production capacity of 4.5 million mt/year.
South Korean investor SK Kores Australia owns the other 50% of Springvale's equity.
