The Gregory Coal Mine is an open-cut

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 at

Crinum ''Crinum'' is a genus of about 180 species of perennial plants that have large showy flowers on leafless stems, and develop from bulbs. They are found in seasonally moist areas, including marshes, swamps, depressions and along the sides of strea ...

, 60 km north east of

Emerald Emerald is a gemstone and a variety of the mineral beryl (Be3Al2(SiO3)6) colored green by trace amounts of chromium or sometimes vanadium.Hurlbut, Cornelius S. Jr. and Kammerling, Robert C. (1991) ''Gemology'', John Wiley & Sons, New York, p ...

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. The mine has coal reserves amounting to 159 million tonnes of

coking coal Metallurgical coal or coking coal is a grade of coal that can be used to produce good-quality coke. Coke is an essential fuel and reactant in the blast furnace process for primary steelmaking. The demand for metallurgical coal is highly coupled ...

, one of the largest coal reserves in

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

and the world. 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 ...

mine has an annual production capacity of 5 million tonnes of coal. Operations at the Gregory mine started in 1979. Coal from the mine is exported to the

Port of Gladstone The Port of Gladstone is Queensland's largest multi-commodity port and the fifth largest multi-commodity port in Australia. It is the world's fourth largest coal exporting terminal. It is within the locality of Callemondah in Gladstone in Centra ...

via the

Blackwater railway system The Blackwater railway system is located in Central Queensland and services the coal mining area of the Bowen Basin. It carries coal, as well as products, to other destinations by way of connections to the North Coast Line at Rocklands and t ...

History

The underground mine at the site is known as Crinum. Together both mines are referred to as the Gregory Crinum complex. Operations at the Crinum mine began in 1997 and it employs about 200 people.

Longwall mining Longwall mining is a form of underground coal mining where a long wall of coal is mined in a single slice (typically thick). The longwall panel (the block of coal that is being mined) is typically long (but can be upto long) and wide. Histor ...

at Crinum finished in 2007. Crinum received the Queensland Mining Industry Health and Safety Innovations Award in 2009 for a safety guard which prevents falls onto a coveyor belt. Severe flooding affected operations at the mine in 2008. The

2010–11 Queensland floods 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...

resulted in a

force majeure In contract law, (from Law French: 'overwhelming force', ) is a common clause in contracts which essentially frees both parties from liability or obligation when an extraordinary event or circumstance beyond the control of the parties, such ...

declaration for numerous Queensland mines including the Gregory Crinum complex. In September 2012, it was announced that open-cut production at the mine was to cease on 10 October 2012. Due to falling coal prices the mine had become uneconomic. The Crinum underground mine was not closed and the coal handling preparation plant at Gregory would continue to be used. In mid 2013, the Crinum mine contained 8.3 million tonnes of coal and was forecast to continue extraction for another four years. On 27 March 2019, BMA completed the sale of the mine to Sojitz Corporation for A$100 million. In addition to the sale of the mine to Sojitz, BMA is providing appropriate funding for rehabilitation of the site, with all rehabilitation liabilities transferred to Sojitz. Sojitz Blue contracted with Mackay company Mastermyne Pty Ltd to run the mine in May 2021. In September 2021, a mine worker was killed and another seriously injured at the mine. In October 2022, the Mining & Energy Union condemned an application by Sojitz Blue to import foreign labour. It said, "Most decent Australians would be appalled that a company, during a coal boom where prices have gone from $90 to $400 a tonne, could undercut good regional jobs by choppering in foreign workers." The Union also said that Sojitz Blue was offering current workers substandard work contracts and was also blocking career progression and preventing upskilling.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gregory Coal Mine Coal mines in Queensland Mines in Central Queensland 1979 establishments in Australia Surface mines in Australia

History

See also

References