Moorvale is a surface export mine located in the central Bowen Basin. Moorvale produces predominantly pulverised coal injection (PCI) coal, plus small quantities of thermal coal.

The Bowen Basin, comprising essentially Pennian and Triassic rocks, is situated in central and southern Queensland and beneafh the surface of the Great Artesian Basin, is possibly continuous with the Sydney Basin. This Bulletin is concerned mainly with the northern exposed part of the basin, its eastern, northern, and western margins, and the eastern extension of the Great Artesian Basin, the Surat Basin, which covers the southern part of the Bowen Basin.

Lower Palaeozoic rocks are found along the western margin and possibly along the eastern margin. The Anakie Metarnorphics in the west comprise schist and gneiss with widespread quartz veins and reefs. An isotopic age of 450 m.y. has been detennined. Granite associated with the metarnorphics in the Telemon Anticline has been found to have a similar age. The metamorphics near Marlborough have been assigned a Lower Palaeozoic age because of their degree of alteration and the Mount Windsor VolcaniCS in the northwestern comer of the map area are also regarded as Lower Palaeozoic.

The main mineral resource of the Bowen Basin is black coal, which has been formed at many stratigraphic levels in Permian, Jurassic, and Cretaceous rocks. Most production has come from the Upper Permian Blackwater Group. Coal has also been produced from the Jurassic Injune Group and the Cretaceous Styx Coal Measures.

The Capella Block is covered by a thin basal marine sequence overlain, mainly in the north, by a thick sequence of partly freshwater sandstone. The structural style is consistent throughout the block and consists of broad drape structures over irregularities in the basement. Flank dips rarely exceed 3°. The horizontal sediments on the Capella Block can be distinguished from those on the Collinsville Shelf, where the sequence is thicker and has a gentle regional easterly dip. The boundary between the Capella Block and the Collinsville Shelf or Comet Ridge acted as a hinge-line; the basement to the east and southeast was tilted downwards during subsidence of the Bowen Basin, but to the west, the basement was overlapped during the Upper Permian transgression and subsided vertically to accommodate the freshwater sequence. The rigid basement block protected the sediments on the Capella Block from tectonic folding. The Tertiary Peak Range Volcanics are located near the western margin of the Capella Block, which is probably bounded by a major fracture zone in the basement.

The washing capacity of the coal handling and preparation plant is currently 600 tonnes per hour, giving the plant an annual throughput capacity in excess of 3.4 million tonnes of raw coal.