Mining Intelligence and News
Australia

Oaky Creek Mine

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Categories

Overview

Mine TypeUnderground
StatusActive
Commodities
  • Coal (metallurgical)
Mining Method
  • Longwall
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SnapshotRun of mine coal is transported from the Oaky Creek underground mines directly to the surface raw coal stockpiles by high capacity conveyor belt systems.

Owners

SourceSource
CompanyInterestOwnership
Itochu Minerals & Energy Australia Pty Ltd (IMEA) 10 % Indirect
Icra Oc Pty Ltd 10 % Indirect
Sumisho Coal Australia Pty Ltd (SCAP) 25 % Indirect
Glencore plc. 55 % Indirect
Oaky Creek Coal Pty Ltd (operator) 100 % Direct
Oaky Creek Coal is managed by Glencore on behalf of a joint venture between Glencore (55%), SCAP Oaky Creek Pty Ltd. (25%)and ICRA OC P/L (20%).

Deposit type

  • Sedimentary

Summary:

Oaky Creek lies in the central Bowen Basin, next to Rio Tinto’s Kestrel mine. The Bowen Basin contains the largest coal reserve in Australia. This major coalproducing region contains one of the world’s largest deposits of bituminous coal. The Basin contains much of the known Permian coal resources in Queensland including virtually the entire known mineable prime coking coal. The Bowen Basin covers an area of over 60,000 square kilometres in Central Queensland running from Collinsville to Theodore.

The foreland, Early Permian to Middle Triassic Bowen Basin of eastern Queensland occupies about 160,000 km2, the southern half of which is covered by the Surat Basin. It has a maximum sediment thickness of about 10,000 metres concentrated in two N trending depocentres, the Taroom Trough to the east and the Denison Trough to the west. Deposition in the basin commenced during an Early Permian extensional phase, with fluvial and lacustrine sediments and volcanics being deposited in a series of half-graben in the east while in the west a thick succession of coals and nonmarine clastics.

Following rifting there was a thermal subsidence phase extending from the mid Early to Late Permian, during which a basin-wide transgression allowed deposition of deltaic and shallow marine, predominantly clastic sediments as well as extensive coal measures. Foreland loading of the basin spread from east to west during the Late Permian, resulting in accelerated subsidence, which allowed the deposition of a very thick succession of Late Permian marine and fluvial clastics, again with coal and Early to Middle Triassic fluvial and lacustrine clastics.

Sedimentation in the basin was terminated by a Middle to Late Triassic contractional event. Over 100 hydrocarbon accumulations have been discovered in the Bowen Basin, of which about one third are producing fields. Accumulations occur throughout the succession, but the most important reservoirs are in the Early Permian and Middle Triassic. Source rocks have been identified throughout the Permian and in the Middle Triassic and are mostly nonmarine. Proven plays comprise mostly anticlinal closures sometimes enhanced by a stratigraphic component, as well as fault rollovers. The Large volumes of methane gas are held at shallow depths within Permian coals in the north and has potential for coal seam methane developments.

The OCC (Oaky Creek Coal complex) complex mines from two seams the German Creek, which can be up to 4.5 metres thick, averaging 2.6 metres. The Aquila seam is thinner, averaging 1.4 metres, but is of complementary quality to the German Creek seam.

Reserves

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Mining Methods

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Comminution

Crushers and Mills

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Processing

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Production

CommodityUnits202320222021202020192018201720162015
Coal (metallurgical) Mt  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe5.33.43.53.36.6
All production numbers are expressed as clean coal.

Operational metrics

Metrics20232022202120202019201820172016
Coal tonnes mined  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe6,571,510 t4,668,711 t4,932,978 t4,511,977 t
Tonnes processed  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe6,841,683 t4,545,911 t4,808,514 t4,720,672 t
Raw coal annual capacity  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe15.9 Mt of ROM coal

Production Costs

Commodity production costs have not been reported.

Heavy Mobile Equipment

Fleet data has not been reported.

Personnel

Mine Management

Job TitleNamePhoneEmailProfileRef. Date
....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required Subscription required Dec 15, 2023
....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required ........... Subscription required ........... Subscription required Subscription required Dec 15, 2023
....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required Subscription required Dec 15, 2023
....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required Subscription required Dec 15, 2023
....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required Subscription required Dec 15, 2023

EmployeesTotal WorkforceYear
...... Subscription required 2022
...... Subscription required 2021
...... Subscription required 2020
...... Subscription required 2019
...... Subscription required 2015

Aerial view:

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