PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Coal miner Bowen Coking Coal has appointed and mobilised mining contractor BUMA Australia to provide mining services at its Broadmeadow East mine, in Queensland.
Bowen said on Tuesday that there was also an option to extend the mining services to the Burton mine.
First phase mobilisation to Broadmeadow East is underway, and site work is expected to start within the next two weeks.
“The rapid start-up of production from Broadmeadow East will be a testament to the team’s ability to transform a green fields project into a producing mine in a short time frame. Bringing Broadmeadow East into production diversifies the Bowen production base and will be the first of a number of our metallurgical coal projects to be exported from the world class Dalrymple Bay Coal Terminal,” said Bowen MD and CEO Gerhard Redelinghuys.
“It’s a great time to be bringing on our second producing asset in this extraordinary high-priced environment. We believe the outlook for metallurgical coal continues to strengthen, driven by continued growth in steel demand and enormous barriers to new supply. This agreement with BUMA puts Bowen in a very strong position to expand production further via a quick start-up of the larger, adjoining Burton mine post transaction completion.”
Bowen recently transitioned to the rank of coal producer following the start of mining at its Bluff opencut coal mine in April.