This article is from a month ago but very interesting read and yes Middlemount is in the Bowen Basin!!!!!!
Boom boom boom! By Amy Phillips from Mackay , QLD
Monday, 14/07/2008
It's been predicted the boom times for Queensland's coal industry are only starting, with production set to double over the next decade.
The export coal industry in Queensland started from humble beginnings of just 200,000 tonnes in 1960, but is now about to pass the 200 million tonnes mark.
The resource is being increasingly demanded by overseas industrial regions which use majority of the coal as an ingredient to strengthen steel.
Most of the growth will be in the resource intensive centre of Queensland called the Bowen Basin.
Chief executive of Queensland Resources Council Michael Roche says although the outlook is great, the boom is going to bring a range of challenges.
He says a very recent study of the outlook for skills demand in the industry would see another 24,000 people needed in the Bowen Basin alone.
"We are also talking about a bit over 50 per cent lift in employment in the coal sector in Queensland, particularly focused on the Bowen Basin."
"So there's no doubt that planning for this growth needs to be looked at quickly.
"People need housing, a range of education services and studies are also showing that workers may not necessarily move to the central Queensland region but instead prefer a fly-in, fly-out option."
The industry is currently working in overdrive to ensure infrastructure can cope with the ever increasing throughput.
Mr Roche says this is mostly happening in the Bowen Basin but expansion of three major ports along the Queensland coast and construction of another, is underway to ship the coal out.
"Infrastructure services are already being looked at, with the State Government and industry gearing up port, rail and water facilities to cope with the boom.
"The Dalrymple Bay coal terminal is already expanding considerably, but the big growth is going to come through the Abbot Point terminal near Bowen, and also further south at the Port Alma terminal at Gladstone.
"So right up and down the coast of Queensland, we will see port expansions to cope with the doubling of exports."
Studies have also predicted the coal resource in the Bowen Basin is enough to last over 100 years.
Mr Roche says if the prices continue to strengthen then more and more of the resource is seen as viable to mine.
"Much of the resource is quite deep, but with prices already over $300 per tonne, the ability to mine the resource becomes more viable and it's said at the moment there is over 10 billion tonnes of coking coal still under the ground.
"That means there is $3,300 billion worth of coal still in the Bowen Basin reserves."
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