Moranbah North (metallurgical coal) is located in Queensland’s Bowen Basin.

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.

Moranbah North is an underground longwall mine.

Preparation for longwall to commence mining:
- Each development pillar ~120m in length and 60m width. ~45 pillars per panel (4.5 km). Cut height 3.5m with roadway width of 5.4m. 8 x 1.8m roof bolts and 7 x 1.8m rib bolts each metre installed when in optimum mining conditions.
- Longwall shearer cuts coal using bi- directional method.
- Width of the longwall panel is 300m with 1m advance per shear. Extraction height 4.2m to 4.7m.

More than 90% of the mine’s longwall shears are now controlled from the ROC (Remote Operations Centres), which is equipped with industry-first automation systems and a monitoring network of cameras to safely guide the cutting of coal with greater capacity and consistency.

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