The Kestrel Coal Mine is an underground

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 ...

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 ...

, 51 km northeast 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 158 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

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 4 million tonnes of coal. Both hard/semi hard

and

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 ...

is mined. The mine was previously known as Gordonstone Mine. The Kestrel Mine is owned by the Kestrel Joint Venture which comprises Kestrel Coal Resources and Mitsui Kestrel Coal Investment. The mine has been managed by

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 ...

until 2018 when it was sold to Kestrel Coal Resources( a joint venture between EMR Capital and

Adaro Energy PT Adaro Energy Indonesia Tbk is an Indonesian second-largest coal miner by production volume and its largest by market capitalisation. In the 2011 Forbes Global 2000, Adaro Energy was ranked as the 1527th -largest public company in the world. T ...

). In October 2013, the Kestrel South coal mine extension was opened. The extension allowed for an increased production of six million tonnes a year. The mine's life was extended by 20 years. During part of 2013 and through 2014 operations at Kestrel North were wound down. A 7.9 km overland conveyor is used to transfer coal to a coal handling and preparation plant. Coal is then transported by 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 ...

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 ...

for export. Customers are mainly located in Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Europe, India and China.

Industrial dispute

The mine was the subject of a long-running

workers' strike Strike action, also called labor strike, labour strike, or simply strike, is a work stoppage caused by the mass refusal of employees to work. A strike usually takes place in response to employee grievances. Strikes became common during the I ...

from October 1997 to August 1999, commemorated in the heritage-listed Lilyvale Stand Monument.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kestrel Coal Mine Coal mines in Queensland Mines in Central Queensland Underground mines in Australia Mitsui Rio Tinto (corporation) 1992 establishments in Australia Non-renewable resource companies established in 1992

Industrial dispute

See also

References