Oaky Creek Coal (OCC) has embarked on an ambitious program to fast track the introduction of Trench Mining into its current mining operations. The project has the capacity to allow the extraction of reserves at stripping ratios, uneconomical by conventional mining methods. Trench mining using Continuous Highwall Mining (CHM) technology reduces the in-situ stripping ratio to 4:3; compared with a stripping ratio of 20:1 using conventional mining techniques.