Hunter Valley Operations

Mining and processing

HVO mining operations are centred in the Wittingham Coal Measures of the Hunter Coalfield, which is part of a Permian coal basin known as the Sydney basin.

The mining process begins with the pre-stripping to remove vegetation and topsoil, which will later be used for rehabilitation work. Overburden is blasted and removed using draglines, excavators and electric shovels to uncover the coal seams. Front-end loaders complete the extraction of the uncovered raw coal, which is loaded into rear dump trucks and transported to the coal processing plant.

At HVO, two preparation plants are operated to produce a range of products. The preparation plants clean the coal using density separation techniques to remove waste.  Clean product coal is transferred by conveyor belt or road transport to the rail load points and is railed to Newcastle for shipping.
Both the mine and plants operate 24 hours per day, seven days per week on a four panel roster.  The operations are staffed by over 700 permanent employees supported by additional labour and service contractors.

In 2006 HVO won Rio Tinto's CEO Safety Award for most improved performance and in 2007 HVO won Rio Tinto's CEO Safety Award for safety performance.

Production and reserves

In 2006 HVO produced 1.8 Mt of coking coal, and 10.22 Mt of thermal coal.

At 31 December 2006, HVO had marketable reserves of 307.9 million tonnes (Mt) and a life span in excess of 20 years.