Tag: Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk

AUSTRALIA’S newest coking coal mine, the $1.76b Byerwen coalmine, officially opened on September 17. Currently operating at 3mtpa, it will ramp up to its nameplate capacity of 10mtpa coking coal after a significant site expansion. The open cut mine in the Northern Bowen Basin, about 20km west of Glenden, has employed about 1000 people during construction and the mine will have a permanent workforce of more than 500 people during operations. The mine comprises four mining areas with a total of 18 open-cut pits, two coal handling and preparation plants, two train loading facilities, including rail loop and spur lines, connected to the existing line to Abbot Point, and an augmented power supply. It is a JV between QCoal and...

IT’S full steam ahead for Rio Tinto’s $2.6b Amrun bauxite mine on the Cape York Peninsula in Queensland. The mine and associated processing and port facilities will replace production from Rio Tinto’s depleting East Weipa mine, and increase annual bauxite export capacity by around 10mt, at a time when higher-grade bauxite is becoming scarcer globally. It’s a major milestone for the operations, which were approved in 2015, with its March commissioning this year well in advance of the target starting date. Rio Tinto made Amrun’s first shipment in December 2018, six weeks ahead of schedule, and at full production, Amrun is expected to dispatch 22.8mt a year, with options to expand. At the peak of construction, 1200 people worked on...