Coal miner Whitehaven on Thursday welcomed the decision by Queensland Environment, Science and Innovation to approve the Winchester South coal mine draft environmental authority (EA).
The approval is a milestone for the company, the people of Queensland and trading partners that rely on Australia’s high-quality metallurgical coal for steel production, ASX-listed Whitehaven said in a statement.
Winchester South is about 30 km south-west of Moranbah in the Bowen basin, adjacent to the Dauania metallurgical coal mine that it is buying.
Whitehaven bought Winchester South from Rio Tinto in 2018. The project has been assessed to produce up to 17-million tonnes a year of run-of-mine production, which, with 380-million tonnes of reserves, will supply the international market for many years.