Japanese steelmaker Nippon Steel and Sumitomo Metal Corporation (
NSSMC) has announced that it has obtained a
mining license from the New South Wales government for the development of new
mining areas at the Bulga coal mine joint venture with international commodities producer and trader
Glencore in New South Wales,
Australia.
According to
NSSMC, with a total investment of about A$704 million, construction work for the new development project is planned to commence this year, for the start of coal production in the open-cut mine in 2016 and in the underground mine in 2018.
With the development of the new
mining areas, the Bulga coal mine will be able to maintain, even after 2018, a production level of 11 million metric tons of saleable coal a year.