Capcoal (German Creek Colliery-Coal Mine)

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This group of mines consist of Central and Southern underground mines and the Grasstree underground mine which is being developed to replace production from Central. The mines are owned by the Capricorn Coal Development Joint Venture whose beneficial owners are Anglo Coal Australia Pty Ltd and Mitsui & Co Ltd. The mines are located 200 km west northwest of Rockhampton and are operated by Anglo Coal (Capcoal Management) Pty Ltd. Low to medium volatile hard coking coal is produced and blended with coal from German Creek East for export to Asia, Europe and South America. Saleable coal production from the German Creek mines is 6 Mtpa. Measured and Indicated coal resources are 248 million tonnes including Grasstree (2002). Reported workforce for the German Creek mines in 2003 is 550.

The German Creek East opencut mine is owned by the German Creek East Joint Venture whose beneficial owners are Anglo Coal Australia Pty Ltd and Marubeni Coal Pty Ltd. The mine is located 13 km south southwest of Middlemount and is operated by Anglo Coal (Capcoal Management) Pty Ltd. Low volatile coking coal is blended with coal from German Creek. Saleable coal production is approximately 1 Mtpa. Measured and Indicated coal resources at German Creek East are 63 million tonnes including Oak Park (2002). Workforce is included in German Creek reporting. Future production is anticipated from the nearby Oak Park deposit.

Capcoal operates two underground mines, and two open-cut mines in the heart of the Bowen Basin in Central Queensland.

Together these mines produce premium quality hard coking coal for export steel markets. The majority of coal is mined from the German Creek Formation, noted for containing hard coking coal of exceptionally high quality. The German Creek Sequence contains five coal seam intervals known as the German Creek, Corvus, Tieri, Aquila and Pleiades seams. Mining leases controlled by Capcoal cover 27,343 hectares and estimated coal resources are in excess of 1 billion tonnes, with in-situ mineable reserves of 125 Mt.

About 900 permanent people are employed at Capcoal.

Location

Capcoal is located 25 kilometres south-west of Middlemount (population 3,000) and 240 kilometres south-west of Mackay. It also is within a comfortable driving distance of the major regional cities of Emerald and Rockhampton.

Coal production and resources

Capcoal mines 11.8 Mt (million tonnes) of coal annually to produce in excess of 8.5 Mt of prime quality hard coking coal and PCI coal. After processing, coal is transported 360 kilometres north-east by rail to the Dalrymple Bay Coal Terminal for export.

Completion of the Lake Lindsay project

On 29 September 2009, Group Chief Executive Cynthia Carroll officially opened the new module of the Coal Handing Processing Plant (CHPP) at Capcoal surface operations to celebrate the completion of the under-budget $AU850 million Lake Lindsay growth project.

The new CHPP operates at a capacity of 700 tonnes per hour, and complements the existing processing facility at Capcoal, giving a combined sales output of more than nine million tonnes. It’s a key component of the Lake Lindsay project, which will enable our Capcoal operations to continue to deliver high-quality metallurgical coal to its valued customers, world-leading steel manufacturers in all parts of the world including Asia, India, South America and Europe.

Construction started on the Lake Lindsay growth project in 2006, with a scope of works including the CHPP and a new overland conveyor to accommodate a major expansion of open-cut mining within the Capcoal complex. About 75 million tonnes of saleable reserves are contained within the Lake Lindsay mining area, and this addition will extend the mine’s life span by 20 years. Peak mining activities at Lake Lindsay will be reached in 2010, making saleable production five million tonnes per annum (Mtpa), consisting of 2.3Mt of hard coking coal, 1.7Mt of PCI specification coal and 1.0Mt of thermal coal.

Ownership and operation

Capcoal is owned by us (70%) in joint venture with Mitsui Coal Holdings Australia (30%). The mine is operated and managed by us.

Regional profile

The majority of Capcoal employees live in Middlemount, which has excellent educational, community and sporting facilities. Apart from mining, the main industries of the region are cattle and grain crop farming.

Capcoal German Creek Mine

German Creek Mine is located 240 kilometres south–west of Mackay in the Bowen Basin coalfields of Central Queensland. The complex comprises three underground mines Southern Colliery, Central Colliery and Grasstree Mine and the Oak Park Opencut Mine.

The underground mines are managed by Anglo Coal (Capcoal Management) Pty Ltd for joint venture owners Anglo Coal Australia Pty Ltd (70%, subsidiary of Anglo American plc, one of the world’s largest mining companies) and Mitsui Pty Ltd (30%). Mitsui is a major international corporation active in resource development, financial services, technology transfer and the organisation of business ventures.

Capcoal also operates the adjoining Opencut mine for joint venture owners Anglo Coal Australia (86%) and Marubeni (14%).

Mining leases controlled by Capcoal cover 27,343 hectares. Estimated resources exceed one billion tonnes with insitu mineable reserves of 157 million tonnes. The majority of coal is mined from the German Creek Formation, noted for containing hard coking coal of exceptionally high quality. The German Creek Sequence contains five intervals known as the German Creek, Corvus, Tieri, Aquila and Pleiades seams.

Capcoal mines seven million tonnes of coal each year to produce in excess of five and a half million tonnes of prime quality, hard coking coal for export to steel-manufacturing customers in Asia-East, Asia-South, Asia-West, Europe and Latin America. The operation employs over 500 people.

Run-of-mine (ROM) coal is processed in a centrally located Coal Handling and Preparation Plant prior to being transported by rail to the Dalrymple Bay Coal Terminal for export.

Our Vision

Our vision is to be Safe, Responsible and Successful

Health and Safety

Paramount to efficient operations is the health and safety of employees, contractors and mine visitors. Our goal is zero accidents, incidents and injuries because no level of injury to any person is acceptable to us. Stringent Health and Safety standards deliver continuous improvement in safety performance and a substantial lowering of our Lost Time Injury Frequency Rate.

Environmental Management

Care for the environment is integral to the success of the German Creek Mines. We seek to manage environmental impacts to a standard that meets legislative and business requirements (Capcoal has obtained ISO 14001 accreditation), meets community expectations and upholds the values of good corporate citizenship and sustainable development.

Capcoal is committed to the rehabilitation of all disturbed areas and to effective and responsible management of mined land.

Through assessment and review, Capcoal is continuously striving for improvement in environmental achievement and compliance.

Underground

The underground operations at German Creek Mine comprise of Southern and Central Collieries ang Grasstree Mine. The underground mines utilise efficient technologically advanced longwall mining methods for cost effective coal extraction.

Each mine operates independently with its own organisation, infrastructure, services and equipment.

Continuous miners are used to develop underground roadways and headings in the coal seam to create panels of coal to be extracted by the longwall mining system. Typically each panel is 250 metres across, between 2.6 metres and 3 metres high and is up to 3 kilometres long.

The longwall system includes a series of hydraulically powered roof supports or ‘chocks’ for supporting the roof, a shearer that mines coal from the seam in one metre thick slices and loads it onto a conveying system for transport out of the mine. After each one metre slice, the chocks are advanced, the longwall ‘retreats’ and the cycle is repeated.

Opencut

Opencut mining at German Creek commenced late 1981 with four draglines in operation. The opencut now has one dragline in operation in the Oak Park deposit where the 5 metre thick Middlemount seam is being mined.

With production estimated at 1.6 million tonnes of product coal each year Oak Park will extend Capcoal’s open cut operations for an additional twenty years.
Mining begins with removal of vegetation and stockpiling of topsoil for future use in rehabilitating mined areas.

A Marion 8050 dragline removes the overburden to expose the coal seam.
Uncovered coal is loosened by ripping or blasting before being loaded into large capacity belly dump trucks for hauling to the run-of-mine hopper at the Coal Handling and Preparation Plant.

The opencut operations are supported by a large modern fleet of coal haulers, loaders, dozers and support equipment with on site facilities for repair and maintenance.

In 2002, Anglo Coal Australia purchased the adjacent Lake Lindsay deposit. This resource has a total of 76 million tonnes of coal and a potential mine life in excess of twenty years. Project studies are currently underway with open cut mining forecasted to commence in 2006.

Capcoal Coal Handling and Preparation

Mined coal is processed in a centrally located Coal Handling and Preparation Plant capable of processing 1800 tonnes per hour and producing 9 million tonnes of product coal per annum.

The coal handling system caters for the different coal types, enabling consistent raw coal feed to be maintained for processing. The coal preparation plant subsequently processes the coal to meet customer requirements. Product coal is placed on a 500,000 tonne capacity stockpile from where it is reclaimed for train loading. Product coal is railed 279 kilometres to the Dalrymple Bay Coal Terminal for export to customers.

Middlemount Township

Middlemount, 25 kilometres north–east of the German Creek Mine, was purpose built to service the operations. The town is also home to employees and families of other nearby mines including the Foxleigh Mine.
With a population of 2800, Middlemount is a progressive regional centre with a variety of amenities and sporting facilities to meet the needs of a predominantly youthful community. The town has health, social and educational facilities including preschool to tertiary entrance level schools, a community day care centre and a kindergarten.


Reference for information:
www.bowenbasin.cqu.edu.au/basin_data/operating.html#ger...

www.capcoal.com.au/oview.htm

anglo-american-australia.production.investis.com/en/our...

www.investis.com/au/imap/#pageType=map/locn=Capcoal/ind...

bonzle.com/c/a?a=p&p=264394&c=3&x=148%2E610918080801&y=...