New Acland Mine General Manager, Dave O’Dwyer said New Hope Group has established a Job Assessment Centre in Oakey for potential employees.

“Until Friday, we will hold a series of sessions with prospective New Acland Mine employees to determine their suitability for operator and maintainer roles,” Mr O’Dwyer said

“These sessions will include one-on-one interviews, group activities and aptitude tests.

“Following the sessions, we will extend job offers to approximately 60 operators and maintainers, who will become our initial production team.

“The latest round of job offers mean there will be more than a hundred employees on site at New Acland Mine by the end of February.”

To date, New Hope Group has received more than 1,700 expressions of interest for jobs at New Acland Mine.

“Workers who have previously expressed an interest in working at New Acland Mine will receive an email when a suitable role becomes available, so they can submit a formal application,” Mr O’Dwyer said.

“As we progress with our ramp up plan during the next 18 months – two years, we will reopen the Job Assessment Centre and continue to grow our production team.

At the peak of construction there will be close to 600 local workers in site at New Acland Mine. Throughout the life of the project, the permanent workforce will be approximately 400 full-time roles.

Work on New Acland Stage 3 began in November last year.