The Ironbark No. 1 Coal Mine is located in the northern Bowen Basin coalfields in Central Queensland.

At a regional scale, the target Rangal Coal Measures sub-crop to the north-west of the Ironbark No. 1 Coal Mine. The Rewan Formation covers the property with the overlying Clematis Group outcropping in the Carborough Range to the east. The underlying Fort Cooper Coal Measures and the upper Yarrabee Tuff marker band occur below the Rangal Coal Measures at mineable depths.

Rangal Coal Seam Geology.
The Leichhardt and Vermont Seams of the Rangal Coal Measures form the principal economic coal resources in the Ironbark No. 1 Coal Mine. A high gamma marker occurs immediately below the floor of the Vermont Upper Seam and it is interpreted to be the Yarrabee Tuff. The Yarrabee Tuff averages 0.5m thick. This tuff marks the interpreted top of the Fort Cooper Coal Measures.

Leichhardt Seam.
The Leichhardt Seam is typically 4.5 - 5.0m thick, thinning towards the southern boundary of the deposit.

The Leichhardt Seam has typically been divided into four plies, Q1 to Q4, however up to seven plies have been logged in some holes. The uppermost ply, Q1, is dull and high ash (30% - 40% ash) and often has calcite veining and is noted to be comparatively strong. This ply is planned to be left as roof due to coal quality and strata control benefits.

The coal below the Q1 is the principal target working section (LHDWS). For modelling and economic evaluation, the Leichhardt Seam is modelled in two sections, Q1 and LHDWS. The LHDWS is defined from cored holes.

In the eastern portion of the Project area, a minor seam occurs 40 - 50m below the Leichhardt Seam named the Leichhardt Lower. The seam has been identified in only three holes in the area.

Vermont Seam
The Vermont Seam in the property has three plies; the Vermont Upper (VU), the Yarrabee Tuff (YT) and the Vermont Lower (VL). The Vermont Seam occurs 55 - 65m below the Leichhardt Seam.

The Vermont Upper ranges from 1.5 - 3.5m and averages 2.4m thick. The VU is typically the better quality of the Vermont Seam plies with an average raw ash of 24%. The Yarrabee Tuff is viewed as the regional stratigraphic marker delineating the base of the Rangal Coal Measures.

The Vermont Lower ranges from 0.8 - 1.7m and averages 1.3m thick. The VL has an average raw ash average of 36%.

Girrah Seam.
Coal seams below the Yarrabee Tuff exhibit a significant content of tuffaceous material, high inherent ash and low yielding washability characteristics. In the Project area, the Girrah Seam lies close to the VL and has a thickness greater than 15m.

The Ironbark No. 1 Coal Mine will develop an underground coal mine which will utilise the longwall and bord and pillar mining techniques to extract the Leichhardt Seam.

Following the grant of all necessary approvals, construction and mine development activities are planned to occur from Year 1. Underground development activities are anticipated to occur for the following three years, with longwall production planned to commence within five years from the grant of the ML The operational workforce will work on a seven day, two or three staggered shifts, rotating roster. There will be two to three shifts in a 24-hour period with approximately 80 to 120 persons per shift.

The target Leichardt coal seam will be accessed via drift entries from the initial boxcuts in the north of the MLA area. There will be three access points into the seam: a conveyor portal, men and materials portal and a ventilation shaft.

Heavy earth moving equipment will be used for overburden removal for the initial boxcuts. The mine plan is based around 22 longwall panels with access via mains and gateroads driven by continuous miners. The longwall panels range from 205m - 340m wide.

The longwall panels have been refined in location, length, width and depth following the 3D seismic analyses and interpretation. The mine plan incorporates the geological faulting across the Project area to present an accurate location of the longwall panels to be mined. In areas where longwall mining is not practical, bord and pillar mining will be used to extract remaining resources where economically feasible.

The Ironbark No. 1 Coal Mine consists of an underground longwall coal mine with the capacity to produce up to 6Mtpa Run of Mine (ROM), however, this IDP contemplates an average production rate of 2.6Mtpa ROM with a peak of 4.0Mt in Year 5. This volume of ROM production will yield an average of 2.1Mt product coal per annum with a peak of 3.46Mt in Year 5. The mine will produce both export coking and thermal coals over the Project’s life of approximately 20 years.

ROM coal from the Project will be transported to the Applicants’ Carborough Downs CHPP for washing and preparation. The ROM coal will be transported by truck over the existing connecting private haul road through the Applicants’ adjacent Broadlea Coal Mine. The Carborough Downs CHPP has the capacity to process this coal in addition to that expected to be produced from the combination of CDCM and Broadlea Coal Mines. The coal processing will be carried out in accordance with all CDCM controls and Environmental Authority (EA) conditions.

Two export products will be produced from the Project, a low ash coking fraction and a higher ash thermal fraction. An overall yield of approximately 82% is predicted, of which approximately 44% is expected to be coking coal and 38% thermal coal. After processing, the product coal will be stockpiled at the existing CDCM product coal handling facility and loaded onto trains using the existing rail load-out.