Cook Mine is in the southern part of the Bowen Basin, and lies on the eastern limb of the Comet Anticline. The strata dips gently, usually <5 degrees to the east, striking slightly east of north.

The upper part of the stratigraphy consists of the Rewan Fm., which is predominantly a grey/green claystone varying in thickness from 80 m to 200 m. The coal bearing Rangal Coal Measures unconformably underlie the Rewan Formation. The upper section of the Rangal Coal Measures consists of four seams interbedded with lithic sandstone, siltstone and carbonaceous claystone strata.

The Rangal Coal Measures contain five main seams (in stratigraphic order from shallowest to deepest): Aries, Castor, Pollux (Argo), Orion and Pisces seams. The main target for underground mining is the Argo seam (4.7 m thick), which is currently being mined.

The depths of the Aries seam (top coal) vary from 110-130 m in the western area to 220-230 m in the eastern area. The thickness of the Aries seam is generally between 1-1.5 m. The Aries Lower Seam (ARL) is not continuous and shows an average thickness of 0.6 m. Where present, it occurs from 1 m to 4 m below the Aries Seam (AR).

The Castor seam is between 10 m and 20 m below the Aries Seam. The Castor average thickness is 2.5-3 m but can locally decrease to 0.5 m or increase to 4 m due to faulting.

Approximately 15 m below the Castor seam is the Argo Rider (AGR). This coaly mudstone band, which gener ........

Cook Colliery is a currently operating as a Bord and Pillar mine.

Cook Colliery is an underground mine that currently only exploits the Argo Seam. Conventional retreating longwall mining was previously used to mine some of the reserve, with inseam development by continuous miners used to develop longwall panels.

After the longwall was inundated with water in 2017, a change to continuous mining only extraction has been adopted.

Personnel and equipment access to the underground operation is provided by one main transport drift, with a conveyor also installed in this drift. A second egress is effected by the downcast shaft and associated personnel winder.

The mine plan has been developed in conjunction with pillar designs based upon the recommendations of detailed geotechnical studies, updated for performance of actual pillars. All main headings, gateroads, and barrier pillars have been designed to provide the required level of stability at appropriate factors of safety. Reviews of geotechnical designs have been completed.

Continuous miner panels have been laid out to maximise resource recovery within the constraints of geological structure.

Cook Colliery was added to QCoal’s portfolio following its acquisition from Bounty Mining in 2020. The underground metallurgical mine had been in care and maintenance since December 2019 until its return to operational status in February 2022.

Mastermyne were appoin ........

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