Students inspect the Ridgeway operation, at 5 Mtpa it is one of the largest underground mines in Australia.

The students, together with three staff and three 4 th year students, visited the following operations:

• Ulan Coal (underground, open-cut and washery) at Mudgee
• Northparkes Mines (underground, open-cut, technical services and mill)
• Cadia Valley Operations of Newcrest at Orange (Cadia Open-Cut, Ridgeway underground and mill).
• The Australian Fossil and Minerals Museum in Bathurst (including the world-class Somerville minerals collection).

This provided the students with the opportunity to see coal and metalliferous mining – both underground and surface, in large scale, state of the art mining operations.