Name and Location
China Stone coal project, Queensland, Australia.

Client
MacMines Austasia.

Project Description
The project involves the construction and operation of a large-scale coal mine on a greenfield site in central Queensland, at the northern end of the Galilee basin.

The mine produces up to 55-million tonnes a year of run-of-mine coal, which equates to about 38-million tonnes a year of thermal coal for the export market. The project will have a mine life of about
50 years.

Coal will be mined using opencut and underground mining methods.

Opencut mining operations will involve multiple draglines and truck-and-shovel prestripping.

Underground mining will involve up to three operating longwalls in two underground mining areas.

Coal will be washed and processed on site and product coal will be transported from the site by rail.

The majority of the mine infrastructure will be located to the east of the opencut mining area.
It will include coal handling preparation plants (CHPPs), stockpiles, conveyors, rail loop and train-loading facilities, workshops and water storage dams.

Raw coal from the project will be washed at the CHPP, generating coarse and fine rejects.

Coarse rejects will be hauled by truck for storage within the overburden emplacement areas.

Fine rejects, or tailings, will be transported through a slurry pipeline to a designated tailings storage facility (TSF).

The TSF will be a conventional tailings dam with sufficient storage capacity for life-of-mine tailings.

The project includes the construction and operation of an on-site power station and associated power station waste storage facility, which will be used for mine power supply.

A workforce accommodation village will be built in phases on the southern part of the project site in response to the incremental increase of the workforce during the project’s development.

A private airstrip will also be built adjacent to the accommodation village for the transport of workers to and from the mine site.

Minor surface facilities for the underground mines, such as ventilation shafts, underground communication cables, gas drainage and mine dewatering holes, will also be built progressively above the underground mining areas.

Net Present Value/Internal Rate of Return
Not stated.

Value
The project has been estimated at $6.7-billion.

Duration
Construction of mine site infrastructure, including the accommodation village and airstrip is expected to start in 2016, subject to the necessary approval being received.

First production from the mine is scheduled from project Year 3, once initial mine works have been completed.

Latest Developments
The Queensland State Development Department has urged the community to comment on the draft environmental-impact assessment (EIA) for the China Stone mine.

Public comment on the EIA will be open until September 7.

Key Contracts and Suppliers
None stated.

On Budget and on Time?
Not stated.

Contact Details for Project Information
MacMines Australia, tel +61 7 3221 4856, fax +61 7 3229 4551 or email admin@macmines.com.