The longwall at Grosvenor mine is ready to commence production this quarter, subject to approvals from the Queensland Mines Inspectorate, owner Anglo American says.

Production from the Bowen Basin mine ceased in the wake of a gas explosion on May 6, 2020, in which five coal mine workers were seriously injured.

The incident sparked the Queensland Coal Mining Board of Inquiry into a string of methane exceedances at underground coal mines in the Bowen Basin.

The re-entry process kicked off in April 2021 after a program of work that included permanently sealing the impacted area of the mine with five large, concrete seals and installing additional gas monitoring infrastructure.

In its quarterly report this week Anglo said Grosvenor development activities had progressed well and the longwall was operationally ready for recommencement.

The company was able to lift export metallurgical coal production across its Queensland operations by 5 per cent to 4.4 million tonnes in the December quarter.

This reflected an increase in production at Dawson, where the company had scaled back production since mid-2020 in response to reduced demand.

This was partially offset by operations at Moranbah being impacted by challenging geological conditions for most of the quarter and operating time being limited at the open-cut operations by above-average rainfall, Anglo said.

Production guidance for 2022 is 20-22 million tonnes, subject to the extent of further COVID-19 related disruptions and regulatory approval to restart the Grosvenor longwall mining operations.