Kestrel coal mine

Kestrel Coal Mine

Krupp coal stacker at Kestrel Mine, 2007
Location
Kestrel Coal Mine
Location 51 km northeast of Emerald
Queensland
Country Australia
Coordinates 23°14′9″S 148°21′59″E / 23.23583°S 148.36639°E / -23.23583; 148.36639Coordinates: 23°14′9″S 148°21′59″E / 23.23583°S 148.36639°E / -23.23583; 148.36639
Production
Products Coking coal, thermal coal
History
Opened 1992
Owner
Company Kestrel Joint Venture (Queensland Coal 80%, Mitsui 20%)
External video
Rio Tinto Coal Australia's Kestrel underground mine in Queensland

The Kestrel Coal Mine is an underground coal mine located in the Bowen Basin at Crinum, 51 km northeast of Emerald in Central Queensland, Australia. The mine has coal reserves amounting to 158 million tonnes of coking coal, one of the largest coal reserves in Asia and the world. The mine has an annual production capacity of 4 million tonnes of coal.[1] Both hard/semi hard coking coal and thermal coal is mined.[2]

The mine was previously known as Gordonstone Mine.[3] The Kestrel Mine is owned by the Kestrel Joint Venture which comprises Queensland Coal and Mitsui Kestrel Coal Investment.[4][2] The mine has been managed by Rio Tinto Coal Australia since 1999.[4]

In October 2013, the Kestrel South coal mine extension was opened.[5] The extension allowed for an increased production of six million tonnes a year.[5] The mine's life was extended by 20 years. During part of 2013 and through 2014 operations at Kestrel North were wound down.[4]

A 7.9 km overland conveyor is used to transfer coal to a coal handling and preparation plant.[4][2] Coal is then transported by the Blackwater railway system to the Port of Gladstone for export. Customers are mainly located in Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Europe, India and China.[4]

Industrial dispute

The mine was the subject of a long-running workers' strike from October 1997 to August 1999, commemorated in the heritage-listed Lilyvale Stand Monument.[6]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Bowen Basin coal mines". bowenbasin.com. 2012. Retrieved 2013-07-03.
  2. 1 2 3 "Kestrel Mine Extension Fact Sheet" (PDF). Rio Tinto Coal Australia. Retrieved 19 June 2014.
  3. ↑ "Kestrel Mine (QLD)". Rio Tinto. Retrieved 19 June 2014.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 "Rio Tinto's Kestrel Mine Extension starts production". MINING.com. 13 July 2014. Retrieved 19 June 2014.
  5. 1 2 Alex Heber (15 October 2013). "Rio's Kestrel South mine officially open for business". Australian Mining. Cirrus Media. Retrieved 19 June 2014.
  6. ↑ "Lilyvale Stand Monument (entry 602167)". Queensland Heritage Register. Queensland Heritage Council. Retrieved 1 August 2014.
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 11/30/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.