Macarthur Coal was a mining company based in

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , established_ ...

, Australia, which was incorporated in October 1995. The company was founded by

Ken Talbot Ken Talbot (26 August 1950 – 19 June 2010) was an Australian mining executive, he was the principal shareholder and former CEO of the Macarthur Coal Ltd mining company. He was the only child of Norman and Nita Talbot (née McIntyre). Talbot te ...

, who was a former chief executive officer. It specialised in the production of

metallurgical 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 ...

from mines 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 ...

, specifically low-volatile pulverised injection coal used in steel making; essentially all the coal it produced was exported from Australia.

Assets

The company maintained a 73.3% ownership in all its major mine projects. As of 2010 it had

open-cast mine 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 ...

s at Coppabella, where the first coal was mined in October 1998, and 2.4 million tonnes of coal was produced from 2.9 million tonnes of material mined in 2009, and Moorvale (first coal March 2003, 2.2 million tonnes of coal from 2.9 million tonnes of material), and was opening a third mine at

Middlemount Middlemount is a rural town and locality in the Isaac Region, Queensland, Australia. In the the locality of Middlemount had a population of 1,841 people. It is nicknamed the "Giant Peanut" by some locals due to its peanut-shaped road layout. ...

with an initial target of 1.8 million tonnes of material per year. A fourth mine, Codrilla, at

Valkyrie In Norse mythology, a valkyrie ("chooser of the slain") is one of a host of female figures who guide souls of the dead to the god Odin's hall Valhalla. There, the deceased warriors become (Old Norse "single (or once) fighters"Orchard (1997:36) ...

was selected for development in 2011.

History

In the first half of 2010, Macarthur Coal made an offer for

Gloucester Coal Gloucester ( ) is a cathedral city and the county town of Gloucestershire in the South West of England. Gloucester lies on the River Severn, between the Cotswolds to the east and the Forest of Dean to the west, east of Monmouth and east of the ...

which was not successful; New Hope and

Peabody Energy Peabody Energy is a coal mining and energy company headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri. Its primary business consists of the mining, sale, and distribution of coal, which is purchased for use in electricity generation and steelmaking. Peabody ...

made offers for Macarthur Coal which were also rejected. 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 was in place for the five months preceding 28 April 2011, due to the

2010–2011 Queensland floods A series of floods hit Queensland, Australia, beginning in November 2010. The floods forced the evacuation of thousands of people from towns and cities. At least 90 towns and over 200,000 people were affected. Damage initially was estimated at ...

. In May 2011, the company announced that it had increased coal reserves estimates by 38% to 2.26 billion tonnes. The company was acquired by US company Peabody Energy in late 2011.

References

External links

* {{Mining companies of Australia Coal companies of Australia Coal mining in Queensland Defunct energy companies of Australia Companies based in Brisbane Companies based in Queensland Energy companies established in 1995 Non-renewable resource companies established in 1995 Non-renewable resource companies disestablished in 2011 Defunct coal mining companies Peabody Energy

Assets

History

See also

References

External links