The project is located within the Northern Bowen Basin which is characterised by typical basin fill fluvial (and some marine) sediments, comprising mudstones, siltstones, sandstones and coal seams. The regional geology is described in the 1:250,000 Mount Coolon Geology map sheet, published by the Queensland Department of Mines and Energy, 1997.

The Bowen Basin contains Early Permian rocks of the marginal marine Back Creek Group, Late Permian coal-bearing (non-marine) strata of the Blackwater Group, fluviatile sedimentary rocks of Triassic Rewan Group, and overlying Tertiary basalt and sediments of the Suttor Formation and Quaternary alluvium deposits.

Open Cut Mining
The open cuts will become deeper as mining progresses. The maximum depth of the open cut will be approximately 350 m below surface in South Pit 1.

The maximum extent of these open pits, the approximate maximum depth below surface at which coal seams are located and the year in which the maximum extent is reached.

The broad mining methodology for each open pit is:
- vegetation clearing (where required);
- soil stripping and storage or direct spreading;
- blasting of the waste rock (where required);
- removal of waste rock by truck, excavator and dragline in box-cuts, creating new mining strips and filling in old/previously mined voids;
- possible blasting of coal and the excavation of ROM coal by excavator and/or dragline;
- hauling of ROM coal to the ROM pad by off-road trucks and then to the CHPPs for washing and processing and train load out;
- final landform re-profiling, topsoiling and revegetation activities by earthmoving equipment.

The open cut mining process involves stripping surface soils, weathered and fresh waste rock and extracting coal quantities to meet coal production requirements. Other activities, including drilling and blasting, production dozing and ripping and pushing of thin coal seams, are scheduled to allow an orderly progression from one activity to the next to achieve a required ROM coal production.

The initial boxcut will be developed utilising a ramp formed in the low wall of West Pit 1. It is proposed that most of the waste rock will be dumped to the north west of the pit for the initial 2 strips and then be dumped in-pit for the remaining strips. The waste rock is a mix of Tertiary basalts, sediments and fresh Permian material with a proportion of weathered material near the surface. Some of the weathered sandstones and fresh sandstones will be used for concurrent civil works and construction of haul roads.

Initial out-of-pit dumping is required as the boxcuts are developed. Out of pit dumps will be up to 60 m high. The pit depths along the subcrop are very shallow allowing coal to be mined and in-pit dumping to commence early in the operation. Once in-pit dumping commences, the in-pit dumps will merge with out of pit dumps and contain all of the subsequent waste material at elevation height of up to 60 m above the initial topography.

Waste Rock and ROM Coal Production
Waste rock is scheduled to be placed back into each pit from approximately year three of the commencement of operations of that pit. Waste rock will be dumped in-pit once the initial mining strips are established, however out of pit dumping will continue sporadically over the life of mine. During the initial years of pit operations, waste rock will either be trucked or crushed (in-pit) and conveyed to out of pit dumps located to the west of the pit operations. In-pit crushing and conveying may only occur when waste rock is required to cross the GAP rail line and potentially the proposed Alpha Coal Project rail line to reach the out of pit waste rock dump.

There will be a single out of pit dump for waste rock from West Pit 1, West Pit 2 and West Pit 3, which will merge with the in pit dump to create a final landform approximately 60 m above the natural ground level.

There will be two out of pit waste rock dumps for South Pit 1, which are separated by an existing infrastructure corridor for SunWater’s Burdekin to Moranbah pipeline system. Both waste rock dumps are separated from the open pit by the GAP rail line and potentially the proposed Alpha Coal Project rail line and hence waste rock will either be trucked, using suitably engineered bridges, or crushed and conveyed to the dumps. Out of pit dumps will not merge with in-pit dumps as they are separated by third party linear infrastructure. Out of pit waste rock dumps will be up to 60 m above ground level.

There will be two out of pit waste rock dumps for South Pit 2. The more westerly waste rock dump is separated from the pit by the GAP rail line. The out of pit dump to the east of the rail line will merge with the in pit dump to form a final landform.

ROM Coal Crushing
The uncrushed ROM coal will be transported from the mine pits by haul trucks where it will be directly tipped into the ROM hopper or stockpiled for later reclaim by front end loader. The ROM stockpile will have a nominal capacity of 400,000 t in the south and 200,000 t in the north.

Coal will be crushed through a primary feeder breaker/jaw crusher system to produce a product top size of 250 mm and then through secondary and tertiary crushing to produce a plant feed produce with a top size of 50 mm. From the crushing system coal will be conveyed to a 500 t plant feed bin before being fed to the process plant at a constant feed rate determined by the coal type and other plant settings.

ROM Coal Handling
ROM coal will be transported to one of the onsite CHPP facilities and either directly tipped into the crushing and screening system or stockpiled on the ROM pad for future reclaim. From there it will be processed, blended and transported to one of the two TLFs for transfer to the Port of Abbot Point for export. The southern and northern ROM pads will be approximately 300 m by 250 m (7.5 ha). ROM coal stockpiles will be approximately 10 m high.

Coal Handling and Processing Plants
The CHPPs are proposed to operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week, up to 7,200 hours a year. The CHPPs will stand approximately 30m high and will have an overhead crane, concrete floor, be a free- standing steel structure, and be fully lit to provide adequate lighting for continuous 24 hour operations.

Each CHPP will comprise a two stage dense medium cyclone and spiral/reflux classifier and froth flotation operation with a co-disposal system for rejects ........