Coal & Allied Industries Ltd, a subsidiary of Rio Tinto, said that it is planning to increase production output from its mines at New South Wales by up to 70% in next 4 years. The company said that it can expect the increased production as the Hunter Valley coal chain signals to improve.

The company said in its annual general meeting that it is planning to increase the annual production to anything between 40 million tons and 43 million tons by the year 2014. Currently the company is producing around 20 million tons per year.

C&A also said that the Mount Pleasant project could be the biggest potential addition to production. The company said that the project had the potential to produce 9 million tons of coal per year. However, the company has started to find the potential through the feasibility study completed in 2007-08. Coal & Allied Ltd. plans to start the Mount Pleasant mine in the year 2013 and expects it to produce at its full capacity by 2014.

C&A also revealed its plans to expand the production at its Bengalla mine. The company said that it expects to produce about 5.5 million tons of coal per year by the year 2014 from the current production of 3.5 million per year.