Special report: A grandiose dream to carve out a giant coal mine in frozen eastern Siberia

The miner's autonomous haulage system (AHS) fleet has already moved over one billion tonnes of ore and waste material within the Pilbara region of Western Australia.

The appeal against the terminal at Fraser Surrey Docks was made by two community groups backed by Ecojustice last week.

Cerrejon accounts for 37% of the country's coal output, the world's fifth-largest exporter of the mineral, and a strike is likely to affect exports.

Last year, the miner sold other coal assets that exclusively supplied South Africa’s power utility Eskom, including New Vaal, New Denmark and Kriel collieries.

A 10-day voting period for union members to decide whether to stop work after failed talks ends on Monday afternoon.

This comes a week after the miner reported a "significant pressure" event at the mine.

The company beat expectations on Thursday with a 5% increase in 2017 production.

The world's largest mining and construction equipment maker beat market expectations for fourth quarter earnings and said its sales growth momentum is expected to continue in 2018.

SEC will push ahead with the prosecution of the company, former chief executive Tom Albanese and ex-chief financial officer Guy Elliott over alleged attempts to cover up multi-billion losses on a coal investment in Africa.