The Commodore mine is an open-pit coal mine located in
Domville and
Clontarf,
Toowoomba Region
The Toowoomba Region is a Local government in Australia, local government area (LGA) on the border of Darling Downs and South East Queensland regions of Queensland, Australia. Established in 2008, the LGA was preceded by several other local go ...
,
Queensland
Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...
,
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...
. The majority stake in the mine is owned by InterGen Australia.
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History
Since 2000, the engineering company Downer EDI Mining has been operating the Commodore Mine.
In September 2014, Downer EDI Mining renewed its contract to manage the mine for 5 more years for $250 million.
In September 2018, Downer EDI Mining renewed its contract to manage the mine for 5 more years for $286 million.
Description
Situated around 200 kilometers west of
Brisbane
Brisbane ( ; ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and largest city of the States and territories of Australia, state of Queensland and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia, with a ...
in Queensland's
Surat Basin
The Surat Basin is a geological basin in eastern Australia. It is part of the Great Artesian Basin drainage basin of Australia. The Surat Basin extends across an area of 270,000 square kilometres and the southern third of the basin occupies a larg ...
, the Commodore Mine is adjacent to the 850 mega-watt coal-fired
Millmerran Power Station, to which the mine is the only source of coal fuel supply, having made its first delivery there in February 2003.
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The Commodore mine employs about 50 staff onsite in total. Almost half the total workforce has been employed from the local community.
The mine's geology is made up of gently folded Walloon coal measures of middle Jurassic age, dipping generally at less than three degrees. Three banded seams are visible: Kooroongarra (up to 3 metres thick), Commodore (averaging 5.2metres thick) and Bottom Rider (between 0.5metres and 0.9metres thick).
The mine operates on biodiesel fuel, and developed a system that independently verifies fugitive
methane gas emissions.
By 1 January 1999, Commodore had a thermal coal resource of 177Mt. The mine produced 3.250Mt to 31 December 2005, and has roughly 3.6Mtpa production capacity.
The mine was operated by BUMA (new owner of Downer EDI mining arm), however after breakdown of negotiations in 2024, the mine operation tender was awarded to EPSA.
Ownership
* InterGen Australia – 53.69%
*
Marubeni Corporation
(, OSE: 8002, NSE: 8002) is a ''sōgō shōsha'' (general trading company) headquartered in Otemachi, Chiyoda, Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan. It is one of the largest ''sogo shosha'' and has leading market shares in cereal and paper pulp trading as well ...
– 30%
* GEC – 6.31%
* EIF Group – 5%
*
Tohoku Electric Power
is an electric utility, servicing 7.6 million individual and corporate customers in six prefectures in Tōhoku region plus Niigata Prefecture. It provides electricity at 100 V, 50 Hz, though some areas use 60 Hz.
Tohoku Electric Power ...
– 5%
*
Franco-Nevada Corporation – Royalties
Awards
* 2011: Premiers ClimateSmart Sustainability Award
References
{{Reflist
Coal mines in Queensland
Surface mines in Australia
Marubeni
Toowoomba Region