If you applied for a job at the newly taken over Blair Athol mine, you can expect to know whether you have made it to the next stage of assessment by the end of December.
New Blair Athol mine owner New Emerald Coal received over 2100 applications for work at its mine, with the second stage of the recruitment process set to kick off shortly.
Executive general manager of operations Jason O'Rourke said the number of applications received was "impressive", CQ News reported.
"There were over 2100 applications by close and of these, around 500 alone were for production operators, 220 for trades, 40 for open cut examiners," O'Rourke said.
On November 18 Australian Mining reported that the mine had received 1100 resumes – this means that in the space of just 14 days 1000 more were sent through.
O’Rourke said people who didn’t make it past stage one would be notified by December 20.
While those who are set to battle it out for positions will go through introductions, psychometric testing, interviews and interactive workshops with job offers likely to be made in January.
O’Rourke said the community had been supportive of the mine’s reopening, with locals regularly dropping in to the company’s shopfront in Clermont.
"I had a guy who runs a local business pop in and say 'hey, you're probably going to have some of my men applying but that's fine because we want this mine kicked off, how can we help?'
"That's the response you don't expect but love."
O'Rourke encouraged more local businesses to register what they do and the capabilities they can offer the mine.
"So, then we can go through that local register and go from there, including them in the tender process."
Although not everyone will get a job or a service provision, O’Rourke said the majority of people in the town will see an influx of money once operations recommence.
A subsidiary of Linc Energy, New Emerald Coal acquired Blair Athol from Rio Tinto in October.
Last month the parent company announced it is looking to divest and demerge its coal division next year, attaching a $440 million valuation to NEC.