Southland mine may reopen in April

摘要

The new owner of the Southland coking coal mine in New South Wales - now renamed Austar - China's Yanzhou Coal Mining Company, is planning to use the so-called "top-caving method" common in China but rare elsewhere which, it claims, will enable it to tap all of the mine's thick coal seam rather than only part as is usually the case with western mining methods. Yanzhou has held discussions with both the govenment and unions over the mining method, although it is unclear whether it win need modifications for use locally.