The Blair Athol Coal Mine is a

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal is formed when dea ...

mine located in the

Bowen Basin The Bowen Basin contains the largest coal reserves in Australia. This major coal-producing region contains one of the world's largest deposits of bituminous coal. The Basin contains much of the known Permian coal resources in Queensland includ ...

Central Queensland Central Queensland is an ambiguous geographical division of Queensland ( a state in Australia) that centres on the eastern coast, around the Tropic of Capricorn. Its major regional centre is Rockhampton. The region extends from the Capricorn Coas ...

, Australia. It is located over the former site of the township of Blair Athol. The mine has coal reserves amounting to 195 million tonnes of

thermal coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal is formed when de ...

, one of the largest coal reserves in

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an area ...

and the world. The mine has an annual production capacity of 12.9 million tonnes of coal. Coal was first discovered at this location in 1864 and has been mined from this area since this time by different companies. There are four seams, three notable for their thickness. Numbered from top to bottom, the seams are: No.1 seam — 7.5 m thick (and completely mined out), No.2 seam — only 1.2 m thick (and not mined), No.3 seam — average 29 m thick and up to 32 m in places (the focus of more recent operations), and No. 4 seam — 3 to 5 m thick (yet to be mined). Underground mining changed to small-scale open cut mining in the 1920-1930s, the first

open cut Open-pit mining, also known as open-cast or open-cut mining and in larger contexts mega-mining, is a surface mining technique of extracting rock or minerals from the earth from an open-air pit, sometimes known as a borrow. This form of mining ...

coal mine in Queensland. Larger scale open cut mining began in 1936, leading to the complete closure of all underground operations. Coal seam fires that originate from spontaneous combustion in the old underground mine workings are a notable feature of this coal mine, typically flaring up when open cut mining intersects or nears those old underground workings. One fire burned underground for 54 years. Various techniques have been applied to manage and extinguish the fires, including using a GAG jet engine inertisation unit and, on at least one occasion, in January 2004, open cut mining of the burning coal seam. In 1968, the Blair Athol coal field was taken over by two large multinationals, CRA and Clutha Development. Exploration showed that the township was over the main coal seam, resulting in the relocation of residences to the nearby town of Clermont in the mid-1970s. In 1984, the

Rio Tinto Rio Tinto, meaning "red river", may refer to: Businesses * Rio Tinto (corporation), an Anglo-Australian multinational mining and resources corporation ** Rio Tinto Alcan, based in Canada ** Rio Tinto Borax in America *** Rio Tinto Borax Mine, a ...

company opened its main mine at this location, as a large scale open cut mine. Peak production was reached in 2009 with 11.3 million tonnes of coal exported.

Rio Tinto Coal Australia Rio Tinto Coal Australia (RTCA) was an Australian coal mining organisation, that was part of the worldwide Rio Tinto Group. In 2018, Rio Tinto completed the sale of its remaining assets RTCA Operations RTCA Queensland Operations Blair ...

closed the mine in August 2012 because it was nearly exhausted. Blair Athol was bought by New Emerald Coal, a subsidiary of

Linc Energy Linc Energy was an Australian energy company that specialised in coal-based synthetic fuel production, as well as conventional oil and gas production. It was engaged in development and commercialisation of proprietary underground coal gasificat ...

in 2013. The Blair Athol Mine was acquired by TerraCom in 2017 and mining of coal resumed the same year.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Blair Athol Coal Mine Coal mines in Queensland Mines in Central Queensland 1984 establishments in Australia Surface mines in Australia Clermont, Queensland