Metallurgical Coal operates six mines in Australia: one wholly owned, and five in which it has a controlling interest. Five of the mines are located in Queensland’s Bowen Basin: Moranbah North (metallurgical coal), Capcoal (metallurgical and thermal coal), Foxleigh (metallurgical coal), Dawson (metallurgical and thermal coal) and Callide (thermal coal).

The Bowen Basin of eastern Australia contains up to 10 km of largely clastic sediment from terrestrial and shallow marine origin along with substantial volumes of economic coals. The German Creek Formation (GCM), the Moranbah coal measures (MCM) and the Rangal Group Measures (RCM) host most of the open pit and underground mining operations. Basin sediments were sourced from emergent volcanic uplands, so clasts are generally lithic and form clay-rich weathering products. The basal unit of the GCM is marine and devoid of coal, and overlain by a delta plain coal bearing sequence of siltstones, some sandstones, and interbedded, often carbonaceous, siltstone and sandstone with coals. The MCM comprises alluvial plain sediments overlying a shallow marine shelf, with sequences of thick sheets of lithic sandstone and interbedded siltstone-sandstone generally overlying carbonaceous siltstone and coal. The basin-wide RCM sequence comprises sandstones, siltstones, interbedded sandstone-siltstone, carbonaceous siltstones, and coals, and is overlain by a noncoal bearing alluvial sequence of massive sandstone and siltstone. Several tuffaceous marker beds occur, some of which are lithified while others form thin bands of high plasticity clay. In most areas there is a Tertiary unconformity overlain by sheets of clay-bound alluvial or lacustrine sediments, and in some areas there are basalt flows.

Deep weathering cycles occurred during Tertiary time, and modern drainage courses include alluvial sequences to depths of 20m or more. Weathering alteration includes leaching, laterisation, and transformation to clay. Depths of distinct weathering to complete transformation range from 15m to 45m. Bowen Basin coal measures rock material strengths range from extremely low (UCS <2MPa) to high (20 to 60MPa) and generally average 10 to 25MPa. Typically material stiffnesses fall into the low to moderate modulus ratio range.

The Foxleigh Project is focused on the Rangal Coal Measures which comprise a 200m thick sedimentary sequence of siltstone, fine-grained sandstone and mudstone containing several economically significant coal seams. The seams targeted by the mine are locally known (in descending order) as the Roper, Middlemount, Tralee and Pisces Seams.

Foxleigh is an open cut, truck and excavator operation, producing premium low volatile PCI coal.

Mining is undertaken using the truck and excavator method, with raw coal delivered to Foxleigh’s coal handling and preparation plant (“CHPP”) for washing.

A new 540t/h CHPP consisting of a raw coal dump hopper, feeder breaker, ROM crushing station, processing through dense medium cyclone, a TBS plant, a flotation plant and product handling system.