The Norwich Park Coal Mine was an
open cut
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 ...
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 south-east of
Dysart, 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. In 2012, the mine closed for economic reasons not because it was exhausted.
In 2003, the mine had coal reserves amounting to 823 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 ...
. The mine had an annual production capacity of 4 million tonnes of coal.
Norwich Park is one of seven 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 ...
owned by the
BHP Mitsubishi Alliance (BMA). The closure of the mine was announced in April 2012 following losses from lower coal prices, higher costs and weaker output due to flooding. The mine closed on 11 May 2012, with BMA claiming that 90% of the 490 strong workforce who wished to continue working would be relocated to other mines in the region.
On July 1 2020, the Norwich Park mining lease was absorbed in its entirety into that of the adjacent BMA Saraji Mine, and officially ceased to exist.
See also
*
Coal mining in Australia
Coal is mined in every state of Australia. The largest black coal resources occur in Queensland and New South Wales. About 70% of coal mined in Australia is exported, mostly to eastern Asia, and of the balance most is used in electricity gener ...
References
Coal mines in Queensland
Mines in Central Queensland
Surface mines in Australia
Isaac Region
1979 establishments in Australia
2012 disestablishments in Australia
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