Production has been temporarily suspended at Appin Area 9 after it became apparent that a recent outage had only exacerbated challenging ground conditions. Production has now stopped again to allow the mine to complete remedial world.
The work at Area 9 is expected to last four weeks. In addition, production at Area 7 will be reduced after elevated gas concentrations were reported. Operations at Longwalls 7 and 9 were suspended subsequently suspended to allow an investigation into the cause of the higher gas levels.
This investigation discovered a failed ventilation fan at the mine, which has since been rectified, the company said. Run rates will be lower in Area 7 until tests confirm the mine is able to maintain methane concentrations at a safe level.
The company said it expected production to be reduced by 0.5 million t, which will impact directly on sales as the mine has low inventory levels.
