Name and Location
Alpha coal project, Queensland, Australia.

Client
GVK Hancock, a joint venture between Indian conglomerate GVK (79%) and Hancock Prospecting (21%).

Project Description
The proposed Alpha project, in Queensland, has a Joint Ore Reserves Committee-compliant resource of 1.8-billion tonnes with an estimated 1.2-billion tonnes of reserves. The opencut operation is expected to produce about 32-million tonnes a year over a 30-year mine life.

The project involves the construction of an opencut coal mine and a 495 km railway line from the mine to the Port of Abbot Point, near Bowen.

The mine plan comprises six separate opencut pits, with a total strike length of 24 km in a north–south direction.

Ancillary infrastructure at the mine will include an above-ground tailings storage facility, environmental water and raw-water dams, water supply and treatment infrastructure, quarry pits, access roads, workshops, fuel and oil storage, communications and power infrastructure, as well as offices and accommodation facilities.

Value
A$10-billion.

Duration
Hancock Coal expects the construction period to occur between 2013 and 2016, subject to the relevant approvals being granted for the project.

Latest Developments
GVK Hancock is facing yet another legal battle, with antimining activists having launched a legal challenge in the Queensland Court of Appeals.

This is the fourth time environmental groups have launched legal action against the proposed mine and follows a September Supreme Court ruling in September that dismissed an appeal from an antimining group to have the project’s environmental approval overturned.

GVK Hancock spokesperson Josh Euler has said the latest legal challenge does not involve any landholders and does not incorporate objections concerning groundwater use.

Instead, the new legal action is based on an objection to emissions from coal-fired power generation in other countries not being incorporated into Australian approvals.

Euler has said the latest legal action completely misses the fact that exporting coal from the Alpha project will, in no way, change global carbon emissions or global demand for thermal coal.

He notes that global demand for thermal coal is driven by the growing capacity increases in coal-fired power generation – the world’s cheapest form of electricity.

Euler has warned that the latest legal challenge will delay the creation of thousands of jobs for Queensland for about nine months, in addition to the incurred 30-month legal delays from previous court cases.

The Queensland Resources Council (QRC) has called on the federal and state governments to close legal loopholes that enable activists to disrupt and delay major resource projects while potentially leaving taxpayers to foot the legal bills.

QRC CEO Michael Roche said the time has expired for governments “to sit on their hands” and allow for the blatant flaunting of the legal system by activists to disrupt and delay important projects.

“The Queensland government can no longer sit back and watch these important job-generating projects be bogged down by court appeal after court appeal on matters which the Land Court has previously ruled is outside of its jurisdiction,” he has added.

“The Land Court has ruled more than once that it has no jurisdiction over climate change and, yet, the legal system allows this tactic of disruption and delay to be rolled out again and again.”

Roche has said the current flaws across the legal system enabled activists to repeatedly launch litigation against industry projects, carrying out a strategy to disrupt and delay projects.

“If the state does not act, this tactic will be deployed against every new resource project in Queensland. Success for the green activists is not measured by winning an appeal, but rather by months and years of delays.

“Their objective is for project proponents to decide that investing in Queensland is too hard and walk away,” Roche said.

Key Contracts and Suppliers
WorleyParsons and Ausenco (programme management services), Aurizon Holdings (rail development), Thiess (preferred mine operations contractor).

On Budget and on Time?
Not stated.

Contact Details for Project Information
GVK Resources, tel +61 7 3003 5500, fax +61 7 3229 4788 or email mail@gvkresources.com.
Ausenco, tel +61 7 3169 7000 or fax +61 7 3169 7001.
WorleyParsons, tel +61 2 8923 6866 or fax +61 2 8923 6877.
Thiess media enquiries, Alex Smith, tel +61 7 3002 9673 or email media@thiess.com.au.