COAL MINES AND MINING – QUEENSLAND

Whitehaven wraps up BHP mines deal

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Original article by Glen Norris
The Australian – Page: 16 : 3-Apr-24

Whitehaven Coal MD Paul Flynn says the company is committed to Australia’s coal sector "for the long haul", following the completion of its deal to acquire two coal mines in Queensland’s Bowen Basin. Whitehaven announced the $6.4bn deal to buy the Blackwater and Daunia coking mines in October, and Flynn says 95 per cent of their employees have agreed to stay on under the mines’ new ownership. Whitehaven has also advised that global steelmakers have expressed strong interest in the proposed sale of a 20 per cent stake in the Blackwater mine.

CORPORATES
WHITEHAVEN COAL LIMITED – ASX WHC

Activists target Adani as first coal leaves Carmichael

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Original article by Mark Ludlow
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 9 : 1-Dec-21

The first shipment of thermal coal from Adani’s controversial Carmichael mine in Queensland is expected to leave the Abbot Point terminal within weeks. The India-based company, whose Australian mining division trades as Bravus Mining & Resources, has begun test runs on the 206km rail link from the mine to Abbot Point. However, anti-coal activists have been targeting the rail link ahead of the first shipment, prompting Bravus to urge the state government to introduce harsher penalties for activists whose conduct puts themselves and others at risk.

CORPORATES
ADANI ENTERPRISES LIMITED, BRAVUS MINING AND RESOURCES

Coal mine gets $175m federal loan

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Original article by Mark Ludlow
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 10 : 2-Jul-21

The $5 billion Northern Australian Infrastructure Facility has approved a $175 million loan to Pembroke Resources for its proposed Olive Downs coking coal mine in Queensland. The mine will support up to 700 jobs during its construction phase and over 500 jobs when it is up and running. Approval of the loan for the Olive Downs project comes only two months after federal Resources Minister Keith Pitt vetoed a $280 million loan by the NAIF for a wind farm project in North Queensland.

CORPORATES
NORTHERN AUSTRALIA INFRASTRUCTURE FACILITY, PEMBROKE RESOURCES PTY LTD, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF INDUSTRY, SCIENCE, ENERGY AND RESOURCES

Pleas for Premier to back mine extension

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Original article by Michael McKenna
The Australian – Page: 4 : 26-May-21

New Hope Corporation recently advised that production at the New Acland coal mine in Queensland will end later in 2021 unless a long-delayed expansion is approved. The approvals process has been stalled for nearly 13 years due to a series of legal challenges and the state government’s inertia. The mine’s workforce has been reduced from 320 to just 120 since 2019, and the remaining workers face retrenchment. Federal Labor MP Joel Fitzgibbon has urged the state government to approve the expansion; he has also accused Labor of turning its back on coal workers.

CORPORATES
NEW HOPE CORPORATION LIMITED – ASX NHC, AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY

South32 set to dump coal mine project

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Original article by Nick Evans
The Australian – Page: 16 : 12-Jan-21

Diversified miner South32 is believed to be seeking a buyer for its 50 per cent stake in the Eagle Downs coking coal project in Queensland after deciding not to proceed with the partially-built mine. South32 acquired its stake in the project from Vale in 2018, several years after Eagle Downs was mothballed amid a fall in coal prices. South32 recently received a feasibility study on the project. Chinese steelmaker Baowu owns the other half of the Eagle Downs project.

CORPORATES
SOUTH32 LIMITED – ASX S32, CHINA BAOWU STEEL GROUP CORPORATION LIMITED, VALE SA

Chinese demand has BHP optimistic

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Original article by Nick Evans
The Australian – Page: 16 : 22-Apr-20

BHP produced 68 million tonnes of iron ore in the March quarter, a year-on-year increase of four per cent. Production for the first nine months of 2019-20 rose to a record 205 million tonnes. BHP notes that demand for iron ore in China remains strong, but it has flagged a potential double-digit fall in steel production outside of China in 2020. BHP’s quarterly production report also shows that output at its coal mines in Queensland was 16 per cent lower than in the December quarter and seven per cent lower year-on-year.

CORPORATES
BHP GROUP LIMITED – ASX BHP

BHP in box seat to buy troubled Peabody mine

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Original article by Peter Ker
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 23 : 7-Feb-20

Peabody Energy is seeking a buyer for its North Goonyella coking coal mine in Queensland, and it has signalled that it is open to a joint venture arrangement. BHP is seen as a potential buyer of the mine, given that it owns nearby assets such as the Goonyella Riverside mine and the undeveloped Red Hill project. Production at North Goonyella has been on hold since part of the mine was damaged by a fire in 2018.

CORPORATES
PEABODY ENERGY CORPORATION, PEABODY ENERGY AUSTRALIA COAL PTY LTD, BHP GROUP LIMITED – ASX BHP

Worker safety the top priority, says mine boss

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Original article by Sarah Elks
The Australian – Page: 5 : 3-Feb-20

BHP Mitsubishi Alliance executive James Palmer says health and safety is the mining company’s top priority. He was commenting on an internal document regarding an accident at one of its coal mines in Queensland, in which a bulldozer operator nearly drowned when his machine overturned in a water-filled pit. Investigators had queried why the pit was not emptied before work began; according to the document, there was an internal mandate to keep trucks running in order to meet production targets. Palmer says that what was presented in the document is not how things are presented in the company’s safety messages. Eight workers have died in Queensland quarries and coalmines in the past 18 months.

CORPORATES
BM ALLIANCE COAL OPERATIONS PTY LTD, BHP GROUP LIMITED – ASX BHP, MITSUBISHI CORPORATION

BHP facing fresh coal safety probe over 2018 fatality

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Original article by Peter Ker
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 13 & 18 : 29-Jan-20

Queensland’s Department of Natural Resources, Mines & Energy has filed criminal charges against BHP and Mitsubishi over the death of a worker at the Saraji coal mine in December 2018. The case, which will be heard by the industrial magistrates’ court, will allege that safety breaches may have contributed to the man’s death when his bulldozer fell into a pool of water. The Department has confirmed that it is investigating a similar incident at the Peak Downs mine in mid-2018, in which a dozer driver escaped serious injury.

CORPORATES
BHP GROUP LIMITED – ASX BHP, MITSUBISHI CORPORATION, QUEENSLAND. DEPT OF NATURAL RESOURCES, MINES AND ENERGY

Time for Adani to deliver on jobs

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Original article by Greg Brown
The Australian – Page: 4 : 12-Dec-19

Labor leader Anthony Albanese says Adani’s Carmichael coal mine has been approved, so the company should begin creating the jobs that it has promised. Adani in turn argues that it already employees hundreds of people. Albanese has also used his tour of regional Queensland to call for labour-hire workers in the mining sector to receive the same pay as direct employees, contending that some are paid up to 40 per cent less. He has also criticised the federal government for its lack of action regarding the low wages of labour-hire workers.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY, ADANI MINING PTY LTD, BHP GROUP LIMITED – ASX BHP, MITSUBISHI CORPORATION