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Ellensfield South Mine

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Australia

Ellensfield South Mine

Location: 115 km SW from Mackay, Queensland, Australia

Address:

Level 4 167 Eagle Street
Brisbane
Queensland, Australia
4000

Contacts:

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Summary

Mine TypeOpen Pit
StatusActive
Commodities
  • Coal (thermal)
  • Coal (coking)
Mining Method
  • Truck & Shovel / Loader
Production Start... Lock
SnapshotEllensfield South Mine is a part of Burton Mine Complex, which encompasses multiple operations with Ellensfield South and Plumtree North serving a centralised Coal Handling and Preparation Plant (CHPP) and train load out facility connected by a haul road. Lenton and Isaac are co-located undeveloped open-cut projects which will provide production continuity at Burton.

Following the April 2025 rainfall event and in accordance with the recovery plan, Ellensfield South re-commenced operations utilising two excavator fleets, helping achieve an 8.5% increase in ROM coal mined quarter-on-quarter. As a result of the lost operating days during the quarter, Ellensfield South has not been mined out yet, which is expected to be achieved in the September 2025 quarter.

Owners

SourceSource
CompanyInterestOwnership
Formosa Plastics Group 10 % Indirect
Bowen Coking Coal Ltd 90 % Indirect
Lenton Joint Venture (operator) 100 % Direct
The Ellensfield South is owned and operated by the Lenton Joint Venture, in which Bowen Coking indirectly holds a 90% interest and MPC Lenton Pty Ltd (wholly-owned subsidiary of the Formosa Plastics Group) holds a 10% interest.

As of July 31, 2025, the fate of Bowen Coking Coal is in the hands of voluntarily-appointed administrators, but its board is hopeful a recapitalisation or sale of the business are still possible.

On 31 July 2025, Ben Campbell, John Park, and Joanne Dunn of FTI Consulting were appointed as Receivers and Managers, pursuant to security interests.

Decision has been made following the inability of the Company to secure fresh capital or to negotiate alternative commercial arrangements with two largest creditors, BUMA Australia, the Queensland Revenue Office, and the senior secured lender.

This came after the state’s tax authority rejected Bowen’s initial proposal on July 23. Bowen’s shares have been suspended from trading on the ASX since June 26, 2025.

SourceSource

Deposit type

  • Sedimentary

Summary:

The Burton and Lenton projects area lie within the Permo-Triassic Bowen Basin. Coal seams occur within the Rangal Coal Measures and underlying Fort Cooper Coal Measures which are Late Permian in age. The seams subcrop in the Mining Lease and generally dips at 15- 25 degrees North West at Lenton and mainly 10 to 20 degrees East at Burton with a section in the Ellensfield south pit up to 30 degrees. The main target seams are the Leichhardt and Vermont seams in the Rangal Coal Measures.

The seams split and coalesce significantly along the strike of the deposit. Cumulative seam thickness range between 5m and 10m for all the seams. The drill hole density (core and chip) allows for a high level of confidence in seam splitting, seam thickness, coal quality and location of subcrop lines. The area is structurally complex and the base of weathering is generally between 15m and 25m.

Burton
The Burton deposit is located 120 km westsouthwest of Mackay, Queensland. The ESPN (Ellensfield South (ES), Plumtree North (PN)) deposits occur immediately south of the Burton open cut pits which were mined by Peabody until early 2017. The Isaac Pit is located north of the Isaac River. Burton Mine produced coking and thermal coal for the export market.

The ESPN deposits are located on the eastern limb of the Nebo Synclinorium and target the Rangal Coal Measures (RCM). These coal measures are laterally continuous across the Bowen basin and were mined at the Burton open pits to the north of the ESPN deposits. Underlying the RCM are the Fort Cooper Coal Measures (FCCM) and these coal measures occur within the Permian Blackwater Group. The RCM are overlain by sediments of the Triassic Rewan Group, with Cenozoic cover unconformably overlying the coal sequence.

The RCM are comprised of fine to medium grained sandstone, siltstone, mudstone and coal. They range from 120 – 150 m thick and contain the Leichhardt and Vermont seams and these seams split significantly and coalesce along the strike of the deposit.

The FCCM comprise grey lithic sandstones, siltstones, mudstones and coal. The Girrah coal seam is a thick unit that is high in ash, interbedded carbonaceous mudstones and multiple tuffaceous claystone bands.

Ellensfield is in a structurally complex area with smale scale reverse faults having been identified during drilling and seen in geophysical logs. A fault zone, that contains several large normal faults and trends east-west is present in the northern portion of Ellensfield. Coal strata dips are between15-30° to the east-northeast. Large normal faults that have been interpreted have displacements in excess of 10 m.

Plumtree is also in a structurally complex area; however, the bedding strike is south-southwest with a shallower dip ranging between 10-17°. Several reverse faults have been interpreted with displacements in excess of 10 m.

The Isaac Pit contains numerous small-scale faults with a maximum displacement of 5 m to 7 m. Currently these faults have been interpreted to trend in East-West and almost vertical. Further drilling is required to delineate the extent and scale of these interpretations. Seams dip to the eastnortheast between 9-19°.

The Ellensfield and Plumtree North deposits are split by the Teviot Creek.

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Comminution

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Commodity Production

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Personnel

Mine Management

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