The Capcoal complex consists of the Capcoal Open Cut and Grasstree, Aquila underground mines, near Middlemount, in Bowen Basin.
The majority of coal of Capcoal (OC) is mined from the German Creek Formation, which contains five coal seam intervals known as the German Creek, Corvus, Tieri, Aquila and Pleiades seams.
The Aquila is planning to extract reserves from the Aquila and Aquila Lower seams, which occur in the upper part of the German Creek formation.
The project is located on the north-western flank of the Bowen Basin, a sedimentary basin comprising Permian to Triassic age geology. The Triassic strata sub-crop at least 5 km east of the project longwall mining area and are not present within the project longwall mining area or its surrounds.
A veneer of more recent Tertiary and Quaternary age sediments typically overlie the Bowen Basin strata.
The relevant geology in the vicinity of the project longwall mining area includes:
-Quaternary alluvium associated with German Creek and Little Parrot Creek;
-A veneer of Tertiary sediments of the Duaringa Formation;
-Permian coal measures including the target German Creek Seam (GC seam).
Alluvium is absent from the project longwall mining area. Regionally, the distribution of alluvium is limited to localised deposits associated with ephemeral creeks. The German Creek alluvium is located to the south of the project longwall mining area and the Little Pa ........