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Location: 27 km S from Blackwater, Queensland, Australia
Level 15, 40 Creek StreetPO Box 10630BrisbaneQueensland, Australia4000
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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 generally occurs at the top of the Argo seam, is not continuous and shows an average thickness of 0.5 m.The Argo seam is the main target of the current mining operations. Argo occurs in the western area where the Pollux and Orion seams coalesce. The Argo average thickness is 4.5 m although it locally decreases to 0.5 m or increases up to 10 m due to faulting. The depth of Argo varies from 150-170 m in the western area to 270-290 m depth in the seam split zone.Eastward of the Argo split zone, the Pollux and Orion seams occur at depths between 140-220 m and 180-300 m respectively. In Cook North, the Pollux seam is up to 400 m deep. The minimum interburden thickness for seam splitting is 0.3 m, which increases up to 18 m toward the eastern area. The Pollux seam shows an average thickness of 2.7 m and is also considered a mine target in the area between the Argo split line and the Tannyfoil Fault Zone. The Orion Seam shows an average thickness of 1.3 m, which (similar to the Aries and Pisces seams) represent a marginal thickness at large depth for underground mining.In Cook North the Castor and Pollux seams coalesce to form the Gemini seam (GE). The GE seam shows an average thickness of 5 m and depths from 130-140 m in the northwest to 430 m in the northeast. The seam splitting and coalescing in this area is still not well understood mainly because few boreholes exist and the spacing is largely variable between 300 m and 1,200 m. The forthcoming infill drilling program includes a total of 20 open holes in this area.The Pisces seam occurs at depths between 170 m to 320 m with a thickness of 1.8 m. The seam includes a stone band which certain area increases to more than 0.3 m thick where the seam splits in two plies (Pisces 1 and Pisces 2), each with an average thickness of 1 m and 0.85 m respectively.Overburden and interburden sediments generally comprise lithic claystone siltstone, sandstone and carbonaceous shale.
