The Hail 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 within 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 ...

at Hail Creek in

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 970 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 5.5 million tonnes of coal. In 2011, seven million tonnes of coal were produced. The mine is operated by Glencore Australia and owned by Queensland Coal, Nippon Steel Australia, Marubeni Coal and Sumisho Coal Development. Resources at the site were originally discovered in 1968. Construction of the Hail Creek mine began in 2001. Production at the open-cut mine began in 2003. Extraction is done by the

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. ...

, truck and shovel method. Two seams are mined. These are the Elphinstone Seam, average thickness of 6.4 metres and Hynds Seam, averaging 8.3 metres in thickness. Coal is exported 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 ...

. In early 2011, production was halted ahead of

Cyclone Yasi Severe Tropical Cyclone Yasi () was a powerful and destructive tropical cyclone that made landfall in northern Queensland, Australia in early 2011, causing major damage to the affected areas. Originating as a tropical low near Fiji on 26 Janu ...

. As a result of severe monsoon rain force majeure was declared and not lifted at Hail Creek until May 2011. In February 2013, the operators of the mine were fined $2,200 for a breach of environmental guidelines when it released water from the mine. The relatively low penalty was criticised as a slap on the wrist. Glencore began operational management of Hail Creek mine from 1 August 2018 after the completion of a deal that saw Glencore acquire Rio Tinto’s 82% interest in the Hail Creek coal mine and adjacent coal resources, as well as its 71.2% interest in the Valeria coal resource. The investment reflects Glencore's focus on identifying high quality assets that complement our existing operations and marketing capabilities. In 2021, satellite observations estimated that the Hail Creek coal mine emits 20% of all Australian methane emissions released by coal mining, while accounting for only 1% of the national coal production. The team having conducted the research suggested a large underreporting in the national inventory.Clement Verite. 29 November 2021
Satellite images reveal high methane emissions from coal mines in Australia
Retrieved on 30 November 2021.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hail Creek Coal Mine Coal mines in Queensland Mines in Central Queensland 2003 establishments in Australia Surface mines in Australia Marubeni Nippon Steel

See also

References