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Capcoal German Creek Mine

German Creek Mine is located 240 kilometres south–west of Mackay in the Bowen Basin coalfields of Central Queensland. The complex comprises three underground mines Southern Colliery, Central Colliery and Grasstree Mine and the Oak Park Opencut Mine.

The underground mines are managed by Anglo Coal (Capcoal Management) Pty Ltd for joint venture owners Anglo Coal Australia Pty Ltd (70%, subsidiary of Anglo American plc, one of the world’s largest mining companies) and Mitsui Pty Ltd (30%). Mitsui is a major international corporation active in resource development, financial services, technology transfer and the organisation of business ventures.

Capcoal also operates the adjoining Opencut mine for joint venture owners Anglo Coal Australia (86%) and Marubeni (14%).

Mining leases controlled by Capcoal cover 27,343 hectares. Estimated resources exceed one billion tonnes with insitu mineable reserves of 157 million tonnes. The majority of coal is mined from the German Creek Formation, noted for containing hard coking coal of exceptionally high quality. The German Creek Sequence contains five intervals known as the German Creek, Corvus, Tieri, Aquila and Pleiades seams.

Capcoal mines seven million tonnes of coal each year to produce in excess of five and a half million tonnes of prime quality, hard coking coal for export to steel-manufacturing customers in Asia-East, Asia-South, Asia-West, Europe and Latin America. The operation employs over 500 people.

Run-of-mine (ROM) coal is processed in a centrally located Coal Handling and Preparation Plant prior to being transported by rail to the Dalrymple Bay Coal Terminal for export.

Our Vision

Our vision is to be Safe, Responsible and Successful

Health and Safety

Paramount to efficient operations is the health and safety of employees, contractors and mine visitors. Our goal is zero accidents, incidents and injuries because no level of injury to any person is acceptable to us. Stringent Health and Safety standards deliver continuous improvement in safety performance and a substantial lowering of our Lost Time Injury Frequency Rate.

Environmental Management

Care for the environment is integral to the success of the German Creek Mines. We seek to manage environmental impacts to a standard that meets legislative and business requirements (Capcoal has obtained ISO 14001 accreditation), meets community expectations and upholds the values of good corporate citizenship and sustainable development.

Capcoal is committed to the rehabilitation of all disturbed areas and to effective and responsible management of mined land.

Through assessment and review, Capcoal is continuously striving for improvement in environmental achievement and compliance.

Underground

The underground operations at German Creek Mine comprise of Southern and Central Collieries ang Grasstree Mine. The underground mines utilise efficient technologically advanced longwall mining methods for cost effective coal extraction.

Each mine operates independently with its own organisation, infrastructure, services and equipment.

Continuous miners are used to develop underground roadways and headings in the coal seam to create panels of coal to be extracted by the longwall mining system. Typically each panel is 250 metres across, between 2.6 metres and 3 metres high and is up to 3 kilometres long.

The longwall system includes a series of hydraulically powered roof supports or ‘chocks’ for supporting the roof, a shearer that mines coal from the seam in one metre thick slices and loads it onto a conveying system for transport out of the mine. After each one metre slice, the chocks are advanced, the longwall ‘retreats’ and the cycle is repeated.

Opencut

Opencut mining at German Creek commenced late 1981 with four draglines in operation. The opencut now has one dragline in operation in the Oak Park deposit where the 5 metre thick Middlemount seam is being mined.

With production estimated at 1.6 million tonnes of product coal each year Oak Park will extend Capcoal’s open cut operations for an additional twenty years.
Mining begins with removal of vegetation and stockpiling of topsoil for future use in rehabilitating mined areas.

A Marion 8050 dragline removes the overburden to expose the coal seam.
Uncovered coal is loosened by ripping or blasting before being loaded into large capacity belly dump trucks for hauling to the run-of-mine hopper at the Coal Handling and Preparation Plant.

The opencut operations are supported by a large modern fleet of coal haulers, loaders, dozers and support equipment with on site facilities for repair and maintenance.

In 2002, Anglo Coal Australia purchased the adjacent Lake Lindsay deposit. This resource has a total of 76 million tonnes of coal and a potential mine life in excess of twenty years. Project studies are currently underway with open cut mining forecasted to commence in 2006.

Capcoal Coal Handling and Preparation

Mined coal is processed in a centrally located Coal Handling and Preparation Plant capable of processing 1800 tonnes per hour and producing 9 million tonnes of product coal per annum.

The coal handling system caters for the different coal types, enabling consistent raw coal feed to be maintained for processing. The coal preparation plant subsequently processes the coal to meet customer requirements. Product coal is placed on a 500,000 tonne capacity stockpile from where it is reclaimed for train loading. Product coal is railed 279 kilometres to the Dalrymple Bay Coal Terminal for export to customers.

Middlemount Township

Middlemount, 25 kilometres north–east of the German Creek Mine, was purpose built to service the operations. The town is also home to employees and families of other nearby mines including the Foxleigh Mine.
With a population of 2800, Middlemount is a progressive regional centre with a variety of amenities and sporting facilities to meet the needs of a predominantly youthful community. The town has health, social and educational facilities including preschool to tertiary entrance level schools, a community day care centre and a kindergarten.