The Oaky Creek 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 ...

mine located 17 kilometres east-southeast of Tieri 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. The mine has coal reserves amounting to 288 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 are ...

and the world. The mine has an annual production capacity of 11 million tonnes of coal. Oaky Creek is one of Australia's highest producing coal mines over a period of several years. It was opened in 1983.Oaly Creek project brought on stream
'' Canberra Times'' 25 June 1983 page 18 The mine contains two underground operations and a coal preparation plant. It is a joint venture between

Xstrata Xstrata plc was an Anglo-Swiss multinational mining company headquartered in Zug, Switzerland and with its registered office in London, United Kingdom. It was a major producer of coal (and the world's largest exporter of thermal coal), copper, ...

Coal Queensland, Sumisho Coal Australia,

Itochu is a Japanese corporation based in Umeda, Kita-ku, Osaka and Aoyama, Minato, Tokyo. It is one of the largest Japanese ''sogo shosha'' (general trading companies). Among Japanese trading companies, it is distinguished by not being descend ...

Coal Resources Australia and ICRA OC. Mining operations by open cut

dragline A dragline excavator is a piece of heavy equipment used in civil engineering and surface mining. Draglines fall into two broad categories: those that are based on standard, lifting cranes, and the heavy units which have to be built on-site. ...

began in the site in 1982. Mining began at the first underground mine in 1989 with coal from a second mine being produced in February 1999. Open cut operations finished at Oaky Creek in 2006. Oaky Number 1 Underground closed in 2017, leaving only Oaky North Underground still mining coal. In 2013, coal production was cut by 2 million tonnes as global thermal coal prices fell and the market was heavily over supplied. Coal from the mine is transported to

Hay Point Hay is grass, legumes, or other herbaceous plants that have been cut and dried to be stored for use as animal fodder, either for large grazing animals raised as livestock, such as cattle, horses, goats, and sheep, or for smaller domesticated ...

via the

Goonyella railway line The Goonyella railway system is located in Central Queensland, Australia. It services the coal mining area of the Bowen Basin, carrying coal to the Hay Point and Dalrymple Bay Coal Terminals 20 km southeast of Mackay, as well as products t ...

References

{{coord missing, Queensland Coal mines in Queensland Mines in Central Queensland 1983 establishments in Australia Underground mines in Australia Itochu

See also

References