australia's identified mineral resources 2004 - Geoscience Australia

More documents

Recommendations

Info

AUSTRALIA’S IDENTIFIED MINERAL RESOURCES 2004 Significant decreases in recoverable EDR were reported at Wandoan, Pentland, Theodore, Grosvenor, Moranbah North, Wambo and Bargo. In 2003, mine closures occurred at Swanbank, Southland, Stratford and South Bulga. Recoverable EDR increased at New Acland, Moranbah South and Felton and the newly reported deposits of Wilpinjong, Wonbindi, Mt Fort Cooper, Millenium, Foxleigh South and Codrilla. In situ paramarginal demonstrated resources (PDR) increased by 108% to 8.1 Gt and recoverable PDR increased by 44% to 4.6 Gt due largely to the reclassification of resources in a number of deposits including Togara North and Togara South. In situ subeconomic demonstrated resources (SDR) decreased 46% to 12.7 Gt and recoverable SDR decreased 13% to 9.3 Gt mainly as a result of reassessment of many of Rio Tinto’s coal deposits. In situ inferred resources remained almost unchanged at 84.7 Gt and recoverable inferred resources decreased about 1% to 52.3 Gt. The large inferred resource differences reported at Callide, Moura, South Walker, Saddlers Creek and Wambo resulted in only a minor net loss to Australia’s total inferred resources. Accessible EDR Nearly all black coal EDR is accessible with only a relatively small tonnage at Hill River (WA) being inaccessible within State Reserves. The resource life of the Accessible EDR of 38.2 Gt is over 100 years at current rates of production. JORC Reserves JORC reserves are 14.2 Gt or 37% of Accessible EDR. Included in the 14.2 Gt are Geoscience Australia estimates of reserves at 19 operating mines that have no reported JORC reserves. This constituted 2.5 Gt or about 6% of Accessible EDR. BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto, Xstrata Coal and Anglo Coal manage about 69% of JORC reserves in Australia. The resource life of the JORC reserves of 14.2 Gt is close to 40 years Exploration Data published by ABS show that exploration expenditure for coal in 2003 totalled $84.7 million, which is an increase from $61.2 million in 2002. Expenditure in Queensland was $59.9 million or 71% of the total. Exploration also occurred in New South Wales, South Australia, Western Australia and Victoria. Production In 2003 Australia produced 358.4 Mt of raw coal (348.0 Mt in 2002), which yielded 280.7 Mt of saleable coal (273.4 Mt in 2002). Exports of black coal during 2003 were 111.4 Mt of coking coal valued at $6.8 billion and 103.2 Mt of steaming coal valued at $4.0 billion. ABARE forecasts Australia’s saleable production will grow to 343.5 Mt by 2008–09 of which 267.7 Mt will be exported. 20 In 2003 Queensland (56%) and NSW (41%) produced over 97% of the raw coal tonnage. Open-cut mining accounted for 77% of the raw coal production and at the end of 2003 there were 101 operating black coal mines in Australia (63 open cut and 38 underground). Employment reached 21 700 by the end of 2003 and annual raw coal production per employee for 2003 was 16 200 t. Domestic consumption of black coal totalled 67.8 Mt with power stations using 57.1 Mt (or 84%). World Ranking Australia has 5% of the world’s recoverable black coal EDR and ranks sixth behind USA (27%), Russia (19%), China (12%), India (10%) and South Africa (6%). Australia produced about 7% of the world’s black coal in 2003 and ranked fourth after China (35%), USA (24%) and India (9%).
AUSTRALIA’S IDENTIFIED MINERAL RESOURCES 2004 Goonyella coal mine owned by BHP Billition Mitsubishi Alliance (BMA), Bowen Basin, Queensland. (Geoscience Australia, Bill McKay) INDUSTRY DEVELOPMENTS – QUEENSLAND Pacific Coal: The $460 million Hail Creek open-cut mine was opened in late 2003. When fully operational the mine is planned to produce 5.5 Mtpa of hard coking coal for export. Pacific Coal is scheduled to commence longwall mining in the Ti Tree area at the Kestrel mine in January 2004. At the Meandu open-cut mine production capacity has been increased from 5 to 7 Mtpa to supply coal to the Tarong and the newly commissioned Tarong North power stations. BHPBilliton Mitsubishi Alliance (BMA): In late 2003 construction commenced on a new punch longwall underground mine at Goonyella. The US$67 million Broadmeadow mine (refer Commodity Review cover page) will produce up to 3.6 Mtpa of coking coal commencing in late 2005. BMA is proposing to develop another punch longwall mine at the Saraji open-cut coking coal mine. At the Blackwater mine BMA is planning to build a new 14 Mtpa coal handling and processing facility. Xstrata Coal: At Newlands, construction commenced on the Northern underground punch longwall mine as a replacement for the Southern underground mine. Production is scheduled to commence in late 2005 and is expected to produce up to 8 Mtpa. The Southern open-cut was completed in early 2003 and was replaced by the recommencement of the Eastern Creek open-cut later in the year. Development of the Rolleston open-cut thermal coal mine is planned for 2004 and a production of 6 Mtpa is expected by 2007. Xstrata is proposing to develop the Suttor Creek deposit at Newlands to replace the Main deposit which will cease in mid-2004. 21 Anglo Coal: During 2003, construction continued at the Grasstree Colliery. The new underground longwall coking coal mine is scheduled to commence in 2005 to replace the depleted resources at the Southern Colliery. The Oak Park open-cut mine being developed by Anglo will replace production from the German Creek East mine. At Moura the operations are being extended southward into the northern part of the Theodore deposit. Anglo plan to produce 6.2 Mtpa of open-cut thermal coal over a seven year mine life at Theodore.
Page 1 and 2: AUSTRALIA’S IDENTIFIED MINERAL RE
Page 17 and 18: COMMODITY REVIEWS Construction of t
Page 19: AUSTRALIA’S IDENTIFIED MINERAL RE
Page 71 and 72:
Pouring copper anodes, Olympic Dam
Page 73 and 74:
AUSTRALIA’S IDENTIFIED MINERAL RE
Page 75 and 76:
Page 77 and 78:
Page 79 and 80:
Page 81 and 82:
Page 83 and 84:
Page 85 and 86:
show all

australia's identified mineral resources 2004 - Geoscience Australia

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?