Xstrata PLC (XTA.LN) said Tuesday that it is restarting rail shipments from its Rolleston thermal coal mine in Queensland state, three months after the track was damaged by Australia's worst flooding in more than 30 years.

Xstrata said the first train is due Tuesday at the open-cut mine, which has an output capacity of 8 million metric tons of thermal coal a year.

"Even though we've been able to resume some level of production in the last couple of weeks at Rolleston, we haven't been able to rail the coal out till now, so this is a positive step forward," Xstrata spokesman James Rickards said.

The rail link to the Rolleston mine is owned by QR National Ltd. (QRN.AU), which has recently completed repair work to flood-damaged sections, he said.

A spokesman for QR National couldn't immediately comment.

-By David Winning, Dow Jones Newswires; +61-2-82724688; david.winning@dowjones.com
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