PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Coal developer Bowen Coking Coal is one step closer to first production after the Queensland government approved an amendment to the Broadmeadow East project’s existing environmental authority (EA).
Alongside the existing, granted mining lease, this is the final approval required in order to start mining operations on site.
Bowen Coking Coal MD and CEO Gerhard Redelinghuys said the EA amendment approval provided the company’s transition from developer to producer with terrific momentum.
“The approval renders the project ‘shovel ready’ at a time when coking coal prices are rallying to record highs. We are in the final stages of our mining contractor selection process with a target for first coal production from Broadmeadow East in the June quarter to be processed through the Fitzroy infrastructure.”
Redelinghuys said fleet mobilisation and setup was well underway at Bowen’s Bluff mine, which is also on track to mine first coal within coming weeks as the first step in the company’s plan for five-million tonnes of yearly run-of-mine coking coal production by 2024.
The Broadmeadow East project is a near-term opencut mine with access to infrastructure and a Joint Ore Reserves Committee resource estimate of 33-million tonnes. Studies have indicated a run-of-mine production target of 0.8-million tonnes a year to 1.1-million tonnes a year over a five- to seven-year period.
A previously completed scoping study estimated that the project would require a capital investment of between A$6-million to A$8-million.
Broadmeadow East forms the first planned pit of the expanded Burton Complex which includes the Burton coal mine and New Lenton project. First production will be processed under an infrastructure sharing agreement, which will fast-track development and minimise the initial capital outlay.