By IANS,
Kolkata : Gujarat NRE Coking Coal Limited, the Australian subsidiary of Gujarat NRE Coke Ltd (GNCL), Wednesday announced it has received approval from the government of Australia’s New South Wales (NSW) province to start longwall mining there.
According to a release here, the Australian subsidiary of Kolkata-based GNCL has received the “Subsidence Management Plan” (SMP) approval from the NSW government to start longwall mining (a form of underground mining where a long wall of coal is mined in a single slice) at its NRE No1 mine there.
Speaking on the development, the company’s executive chairman Arun Kumar Jagatramka said: “The grant of approval to commence longwall production at NRE No.1 mine vindicates our commitment and belief to have the two hard coking coal mines under longwall operations before the end of March 2012.”
Jagatramka said the approval was significant due to the fact that the commencement of longwall production in NRE No1 mine would ensures the future growth of the company on a higher trajectory.
GNCL, the flagship company of Gujarat NRE group, is the largest independent producer of met coke in India with an installed capacity of 1.434 MTPA.
The company has coking coal mines in Australia with over 650 million tonnes of coking coal resources. The two coking coal mines, NRE NO.1 and NRE Wongawilli, are located in the Illawarra region of NSW.