Tag: coal

All images: New Hope Group.   BY REUBEN ADAMS   THE QLD coal sector is enjoying strong revenues, employment growth, and new investment. Now – as QLD Labor secures another term in office – it’s time to examine how red tape, drawn out development approvals, and political risk are having a real and tangible impact on greenfields and brownfields mine development.   Coal has officially re-emerged from some of the most difficult industry conditions in years. Even taking into account the substantial impacts of Cyclone Debbie in April, strong prices have put a spring into the step of the QLD’s major producers. In FY17, New Hope Group’s revenue from its QLD and NSW operations jumped 59 per cent to $844.1...

 All Images: Whitehaven Coal.   BY CAMERON DRUMMOND   ON the back of increased seaborne coal prices, Whitehaven banked record revenue during the first half of the 2017 financial year which enabled the company to pay down more than $300 million of debt.   Whitehaven Coal is Australia’s largest independent coal producer, with five operating mines in North West NSW. The operations have a combined annual output of 20.1 million tonnes per annum (mtpa); however Whitehaven is undertaking expansion works at its flagship Maules Creek operation to increase its saleable coal output to 23mtpa by the 2019 financial year. Thermal and metallurgical coal is produced from one underground mine, Narrabri, and four open cut mines at Maules Creek, Tarrawonga, Werris...

Peabody Energy’s Metropolitan Colliery.       Image: Peabody Energy BY CAMERON DRUMMOND BHP Billiton spinoff South32 has scrapped its $US200 million purchase of Peabody Energy’s Metropolitan Colliery and associated port infrastructure near Wollongong, NSW. On 23 February, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) released a statement saying the proposed acquisition could substantially lessen competition in the coking coal supply to Australian steelmakers, as it would leave South32 as the only major supplier in the region. “The ACCC considers that competition is necessary for customers in a region to obtain export price parity,” the competition monitor wrote. “If there is a single exporter in a region, that supplier will likely set the price to local customers to match the...

Glencore has scrambled to boost its Australian coal production on the back of soaring coal prices this year.  Image: Duncan Harris.   By Cameron Drummond MINING giant Glencore has announced plans to restart mining at the Integra underground coal operation in the NSW Upper Hunter Valley for two years, potentially creating up to 275 new jobs. It was the second time in as many months Glencore had decided to kick-start a shuttered coal mine, following an October announcement that it would reopen its Collinsville coal mine after halting production in December last year. Glencore acquired Integra (formerly Glennies Creek) last year from Brazilian miner Vale with the mine already on care and maintenance since July 2014. Glencore Australia head of...

Rio Tinto's Hunter Valley Operations (HVO) project produced more than 13 million tonnes of thermal and semi-soft coking coal in 2015. Image: Rio Tinto.   By Elizabeth Fabri   AS thermal and coking coal prices recover from record lows, the resources industry remains hopeful the worst is now over for NSW’s economic ‘engine room’; the Hunter Valley. The Hunter Valley is Australia’s largest regional area, comprising 11 local governments, about 600,000 residents, and the country’s seventh largest city, Newcastle. Coal mining in the region dates back to 1791, and continues to drive the economy with a number of world-class coal projects spread across the 29,145sqkm expanse. When coal prices took a hit four years ago, the Hunter’s strength was put...

By Rachel Dally-Watkins 15 May, 2015 PLANS to build a fourth coal terminal at the Port of Newcastle have progressed with the Department of Planning and Environment (DPE) recommending the project for approval and referring the application to the Planning Assessment Commission for a final decision. Port Waratah Coal Services, which owns and operates the port’s Kooragang and Carrington terminals, has been working with government, rail providers and coal producers to increase capacity at the port through the Terminal 4 project. The original master plan allowed for a capability of 120 million tonnes per annum throughput; however since the plan was lodged...

By Rachel Dally-Watkins 21 May, 2015 THE resources industry is a mainstay of the Queensland economy, contributing $77.6 billion during 2013-2014 and accounting for one in five jobs in the state. The Queensland Resources Council (QRC), which represents explorers, miners, contractors, mineral processors, oil and gas producers and electricity generators with interests in the state, estimated that the resources industry supported 17,000 businesses during 2013-2014 with direct spending of $37.5 billion. It also contributed $2.5 billion in royalties, and employed 442,000 full time employees (directly and indirectly). “Queensland is the leading exporter of coking coal in the world; currently, both coking coal and thermal coal...