Construction on Whitehaven Coal’s $767 million Maules Creek open-cut mine is forging ahead, with almost 70 per cent of the project now complete. The company is on track to begin railing coal early, moving the start date from March to January next year and plans to produce 14 million tonnes a year. About 400 new jobs will be created. NVI journalist KATE RAMIEN was among the local and national media, as well as stakeholders, who toured the Maules Creek mine site on Tuesday.
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The Maules Creek coal mine has jumped some major hurdles to not only achieve its goal of railing coal in less than six months, but announcing today it would rail its first coal two months ahead of schedule in January.
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The mine has endured a lengthy approvals process, legal challenges and ongoing environmental protests.
Whitehaven's managing director and chief executive officer Paul Flynn said the early start up date was due to the strong performance of the Whitehaven construction team and contractors working on the project.
"The result is an outstanding achievement by everyone involved in the construction of the Maules Creek mine and that the team should be commended," Mr Flynn said.
“We’re very, very confident in coal’s position in the future."
- Managing director and chief executive officer Paul Flynn
Initial sales from the Maules Creek project will be for by-pass thermal coal, which is expected to exceed Newcastle benchmark specifications.
The NSW Department of Planning and Environment has also approved a revised biodiversity management plan for the Maules Creek project. Under the revised BMP, clearing activities will be carried out in the period between February 15 and April 30 of each year.
Whitehaven said this timing for clearance activities would have no impact on railing first coal in January 2015, nor will it impact any other key project milestones.
Whitehaven Coal chairman Mark Vaile described the company’s journey as a “long, hard road” while on a tour of the mine site on Tuesday with media and stakeholders, but the company is now forging ahead to develop a premium asset.
The group of stakeholders were given an inside look at the $767 million mine, which is 68 per cent complete, and included the box cut, run-of-mine pad and the rail line which cost more than $200 million to build.
Mr Flynn said the Gunnedah Basin had better quality coal than the average in Australia, with Maules Creek producing a high quality, low ash, low sulphur and low phosphorus semi-soft coking coal.
“That really will be the future go-to coal,” Mr Flynn said.
The company also addressed the fly-in-fly-out (FIFO) issue, giving a firm commitment that it would focus on employing local people.
In July this year, the workforce was at 655 people with 75 per cent living and working in the local region.
In 2014, Whitehaven Coal paid $110.2 million in salaries, wages, tax and superannuation to employees at each of its mines.
“It’s a massive contribution,” Mr Flynn said.
The company paid $70.8 million in royalties to the state government and $150,000 to community groups and local education projects.
It expected to contribute $2.4 billion to the state government over the first 21 years of production at Maules Creek.
Despite the doom and gloom and the cyclical nature of the coal industry recently, Whitehaven Coal representatives said they were looking towards a positive future.
“We’re very, very confident in coal’s position in the future,” Mr Flynn said.
The Maules Creek mine will produce 14 million tonnes of coal a year and will create 400 new jobs with a focus on recruiting locally.
The mine is working towards 10 per cent of its workforce having indigenous heritage.
It follows an extensive cultural heritage program, where the company worked with more than 190 registered Aboriginal parties at the mine site.
“We have worked through issues with them but it hasn’t been easy,” Whitehaven Maules Creek project director Brian Cole said.
More than 5000 Aboriginal artefacts, including many stone tools, were salvaged during the operation and will be stored in a keeping place yet to be established.
It’s been an interesting and long journey road for the Maules Creek project, with an extensive approvals process and having to comply with more than 100 state government conditions.
When the project was originally purchased in 2009 from Rio Tinto, Mr Vaile said nobody envisaged it would be five years before the company would be producing coal.
The delays in approvals caused frustration along with decision making and “wrestling” between a conservative, state-based government and a Labor federal government.
“We’ve gone through the regulatory approvals process, engaged in discussions and worked with the community to ensure we develop an asset in a sustainable manner,” Mr Vaile said.
Mining operations at Maules Creek have already begun in the box cut with the first coal to be railed from the site in March next year.
Mr Flynn said the project was not controversial given the area where the mine was situated had been subject to logging for decades.
