T
he Blair Athol open cut coal mine
produced 124,250t of run-of-mine
coal in the September quarter.
h e mine moved 2.2 million
bank cubic metres of overburden and
produced equivalent saleable production of
124,250t.
Of that, 46,461t was sold and 77,789t was
held in inventory.
h e i rst product coal from Blair Athol
was washed on October 10 and the i rst coal
trucked to third party coal handling facility
on October 19.
During June 2017, the Blair Athol team
submitted a revised plan of operations to
the Queensland government’s Department
of Environment and Heritage Protection
outlining a return to operations in 2017-18 at
a 2 million tonne per annum mining rate.
h e plan of operations and associated
i nancial assurance of $74.6 million has been
subsequently approved by the DEHP.
h e company amended its plan of
operations to accommodate the inclusion
of the coal handling and preparation plant
onsite at Blair Athol, which resulted in the
plan of operations for the period ending June
21 2018 to be $74.9 million.
Since site handover on May 31 2017,
TerraCom has appointed Link Mining
Services as the operator of Blair Athol.
Link Mining has completed the i rst phase
of recommissioning works and commenced
bulk shaping and dewatering works to
deliver on TerraCom’s plans to restart coalmining and complete over 50 hectares of site
rehabilitation in 2017 calendar year.
“h e recommencement of mining at
Blair Athol Coal mine is forecast to deliver
TerraCom positive cash l ow through a
low overhead structure and operational
ei ciencies,” the company said.
“h is has been further bolstered by
increased prices in the seaborne thermal
coal markets which have remained buoyant
during 2017 calendar year.”
TerraCom famously acquired the Blair
Athol Coal Mine for $1 from Rio Tinto and
the Queensland government has received
$79.6 million from the Blair Athol Coal Joint
Venture to meet the mine’s rehabilitation,
which forms part of TerraCom’s i nancial
assurance of $93.1 million.
h e acquisition included the mining lease,
related licenses, land, site infrastructure,
active contracts and all mining plant and
equipment, including a dragline, to deliver
TerraCom’s forecast production schedule and
the progressive rehabilitation.
TerraCom plans to start more than 50
hectares of site rehabilitation while bringing
the mine back into production.
In 2016, TerraCom announced the
reinstatement of the Blair Athol Coal JORC
Reserves which totaled 13.5 million tonnes.
Further work since TerraCom acquired
Blair Athol has enabled Xenith Consulting
to extend the reserves by 2.1Mt adding one
extra year to mine life, which now totals
8 years based on 2Mtpa.Blair Athol
produces again
Queensland’s latest coal mine start-up is TerraCom’s
Blair Athol project in the Bowen Basin, which is
QRGTCVKPICICKPCHVGTsXG[GCTUQWVQHCEVKQP30 AMM December 2017 http://www.miningmonthly.com
COAL QUEENSLAND
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MACHINERY HIRE RANGE
ALSO INCORPORATES A LARGE
FLEET OF RUN OF MINE DIESEL
MACHINERY, ATTACHMENTS
AND IMPLEMENTS.Cougar Mining Group’s
Longwall Relocation Fleet
is continuing to grow
steadily into a major
player in the underground
coal sector. We believe
this growth and success is
attributable to our team’s
diligence and equipment
reliability.Recent multiple acquisitions
of additional machinery
further complement our LWC
Chock Hauler fleet. Our Fleet
of 100+ units has either been
purchased new or recently
fully overhauled.Aer 2 years of successful
longwall relocations at
numerous sites across NSW &
QLD, Cougar machinery is now
flowing into more planned
and contracted longwall
activity at additional sites.The Blair Athol open cut coal mine
produced 124,250t of run-of-mine coal
in the September quarter.