Name of the Mine
Daunia mine.

Location  
About located 30 km south-east of Moranbah, and about 170 km south-west of Mackay in Queensland, Australia.

Mine Owner/s  
Whitehaven Coal.

Brief Description  
Daunia is a a multipit operation with the Titan West, Titan North, Titan Central, Calypso and Atlas pits currently being mined. Pandora Pit is scheduled to start in the 2027 financial year.

Coal seams mined include the Leichhardt (L13/L4) and Vermont (V1) seams of the Rangal Coal Measures. These seams produce low ash coking coal and pulverised coal injection (PCI) product.

Brief History  
Whitehaven Coal announced the acquisition of 100% of the Daunia and Blackwater coal mines from BHP and Mitsubishi Development, in October 2023. Whitehaven took ownership following completion of the acquisition on April 2, 2024.

Primary Metals/Minerals  
Hard coking coal and PCI metallurgical coal products.

Secondary Metals/Minerals  
None stated.

Geology/Mineralisation  
Daunia is a structurally complex mine targeting the Late Permian Rangal coal measures, which comprise coal, sandstones, siltstones, minor mudstones and carbonaceous mudstones. 

These units are overlain by 1 m to 4 m of unconsolidated Cenozoic sediments. Depth of weathering averages 24 m. The coal measures generally dip less than 8⁰ into a north-northwest-trending syncline over the central part of Daunia, while steeper dips of up to 15⁰ occur in the south and north. Major coal seams extend at least the length (about 9.5 km) and width (about 3 km) of ML1781 except where they have already been extracted.

Daunia is located in the northern most part of the Permo-Triassic Bowen basin containing principally fluviatile and some marine sediments. The Bowen basin extends for more than 250 km north to south and up to 200 km east to west and is related to a group of Permo-Triassic basins in eastern Australia that includes the Sydney and Gunnedah basins.

Development of the basin in the Early Permian occurred as a series of half-grabens that subsequently became areas of regional crustal sag. Coals accumulated throughout almost all the Permian and Triassic, initially around the basin margins and in isolated sites, and throughout the entire basin during the Late Permian, Whitehaven states in an announcement released in October 2023.

Regionally, the Permo-Triassic sediments of the Bowen basin are overlain by a veneer of unconsolidated Quaternary alluvium and colluvium, poorly consolidated Tertiary (Cenozoic) sediments and, in places, remnants of Tertiary basalt flows. The basin has suffered extensional and compression events oriented in north-east – south-west direction. Variations in depositional patterns and deformation styles that occur along strike suggest the possibility of north-east-trending deep seated crustal transfer faults.

Reserves  
The Daunia mine had Joint Ore Reserves Committee- (Jorc-) compliant recoverable proven and probable reserves of 81-million tonnes as at June 30, 2023.

Resources  
The Blackwater mine had Joint Ore Reserves Committee-compliant measured, indicated and inferred mineral resources of 115-billion tonnes as at June 30, 2023.

Type of Mine
Opencut.

Mining Method  
Opencut strip mining.

Major Infrastructure/Equipment  
The Daunia mining fleet comprises one large electric shovel and two large hydraulic excavators for waste removal. Smaller excavators are used for coal mining and removal of low-productivity waste wedge passes on top of coal. Coal and waste are loaded by these excavators into a fleet of 27 autonomous Cat793 trucks and a fleet of seven autonomous Cat797 trucks. 

Daunia uses the CAT MineStar system for operating its autonomous equipment. 

Other autonomous infrastructure includes 70 light vehicles and 32 medium vehicles fitted with proximity awareness technology, 52 ancillary machines fitted with terrain awareness, and two communications towers. All are supported by operational control rooms and associated technology. 

The mine is currently operating in fully autonomous mode. Coal washing and handling follows a standard process through a modern coal handling preparation plant (CHPP) with a run-of-mine feed capacity of between 6.2-million tonnes a year and 6.4-million tonnes a year. This provides some latent capacity for the mining operation. After stockpiling, coal is loaded onto trains at a shared facility with Stanmore’s Red Mountain CHPP and railed to Hay Point or Dalrymple Bay coal terminals. Rejects and tailings from the CHPP are co-disposed in spoil dumps negating the need for tailings management facilities. 

Prospects  
The project has an expected mine life to 2040.

Contact Details 
Whitehaven Coal. Website: https://whitehavencoal.com.au/ 
Whitehaven Coal. Annual Report 2023 (August 24, 2023).
Whitehaven Coal. Whitehaven Coal to acquire 100% of BMA’s Daunia and Blackwater coal mines through a compelling and transformational acquisition (October 18, 2023).