Anglo American approves Grosvenor coal mine

Up to 1,000 new jobs will be created as a result of Anglo American’s Board approval of its five million tonne per annum coking coal mine in Queensland's Bowen Basin.

The planned underground longwall operation with a mine life of around 26 years is a greenfield project located just south of the company’s existing Moranbah North coal mine.  The project site is located within the northern region of the Bowen Basin, approximately 190 kilometres south-west of Mackay.

The US $1.7 billion project will be the first in a planned phase of growth projects for the company.  In April 2011, the company announced a $2.7billion growth plan for Grosvenor and the Moranbah South underground coal mines.

The Grosvenor project is 100% owned by Anglo American and forms a major part of the group’s strategy of tripling production of metallurgical coal from its Australian assets by 2020 using a standard longwall and coal handling and preparation plant (CHPP) design model.

In its first phase of development, Grosvenor will consist of a single new underground longwall mine, targeting the same well understood Goonyella Middle coal seam as Moranbah North, and will process its coal through the existing Moranbah North CHPP and train loading facilities. A pre-feasibility study for expansion by adding a second longwall at Grosvenor is under way.

More information can be found here:  http://www.angloamerican.com.au/our-operations/projects.aspx.

See our annual update of mining projects for Queensland: http://www.theresourcechannel.com.au/blog/mining-projects-queensland