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Gladston to expand to 140 Mt over next few years in a major expansion. You can bet CHL will be there;

Queensland is set to become home to the world's largest coal export facility with the advancement of two major projects.

Acting Premier Anna Bligh visited the central Queensland city of Gladstone to release the environmental impact study for the proposed $1 billion Wiggins Island coal terminal.

Ms Bligh was also present for the first coal train to use a $92 million unloading station at Gladstone port's main coal handling facility, RG Tanna Coal Terminal, which is also set for expansion.

When work on the two coal terminals is completed, it will take Gladstone's coal exporting capacity to 140 million tonnes a year - the busiest in the world.

Rapid coal mining expansion in the Surat Basin, in the northern and western parts of the Darling Downs, brought into Gladstone via a proposed 200km rail

line known as the Southern Missing Link will put pressure on the existing port over coming decades.

The first stage of Wiggins Island, a joint project between the Central Queensland Port Authority and Queensland Rail, will be completed by 2011.

It will have an initial capacity of 25Mt a year, rising to 70Mt a decade later and delivering the state around $5.5 billion in annual export earnings.

The RG Tanna Coal Terminal expansion will create extra capacity of 29Mt a year by October next year at a cost of $800 million.