Whitehaven Coal projects on the horizon

Whitehaven Coal will potentially set aside between $12 million and $17 million to acquire and develop land for employee housing in the North West.

The company announced its plans for a possible housing project to support its operations in Narrabri and Gunnedah as well as early talks of developing a solar farm at its Narrabri mine site during the release of the end-of-financial-year results late last week.

The solar farm, listed as one of the company’s growth projects, has been allocated $3 million.

Employee housing would assist the company in attracting new employees during the current shortage of workers being experienced across the nation.

The company plans to make its future housing development available to current employees and for people considering a career with Whitehaven Coal.

“We want to try and build more capacity… because we’ve got a need for people in years to come, and we want to make sure that housing isn’t the barrier of entry, at least for partners,” chief financial officer Kevin Ball said during last week’s teleconference.

CEO and managing director Paul Flynn was also part of last week’s financial result announcement, detailing the company’s $2 billion profit.