The Project has been substantially modified from that proposed previously by the Joint Venture to accommodate both social and environmental issues that were raised through community consultation and preliminary studies undertaken throughout the ten year environmental and geological investigations phase.

Key changes to earlier conceptual mining proposals include:

• Developing a viable mine project based on the Western Area resource and without mining under Tuggerah Lake;
• Reduction of mine production levels;
• Removal of coal washery and the associated reject disposal issues;
• Gas management initiatives;
• Dedicated water treatment and promotion of water recycling measures ; and
• Incorporating innovative ecological and landscape management measures.

The Wallarah seam, averaging around 6m thick will be mined by longwall methods. Coal processing will consist of crushing only and because the mine will not require a coal washing plant no tailings or washplant reject will be produced.

Water generated by the mine will be used in the crushing and stockpiling process, especially for controlling dust. Any surplus water is intended to be made available for a variety of beneficial uses in the local district, which will involve it first being treated to required quality specifications.

The mine will produce a single 14-18% ash product to be marketed for export and domestic electricity generation.

The mine will also produce natural gas as an integral part of the mining process, and this will be marketed for domestic electricity generation or other commercial uses. The gas will be collected principally underground as an essential part of safe mining operations rather than via surface drilling and complex groundworks associated with typical commercial gas extraction operations.