macarthur green light for growth

Macarthur green light for growth.

It’s all systems go as the coal company commits
$300m to Bowen Basin expansion plans set to
double its workforce, writes Belinda Humphries.

Macarthur Coal is launching into construction at its
Middlemount Mine project as part of a growth strategy
expected to see the company double production within five
years. Chief executive officer Nicole Hollows said contractors were due to start work on the Middlemount coal preparation plant as soon as the mining lease was granted – an outcome she expected by the end of July.

Overburden removal would begin early next year and
Macarthur expected to be producing coal at the new mine
in mid 2010, she said. The company plans to spend about $300 million developing that mine and bringing another of its central Queensland coal projects into production in
the next few years - with the Codrilla project earmarked as
the early favourite.
Ms Hollows said the two new mines would help lift the
company’s production to an annual rate of more than 9
million tonnes of coal compared to an estimated 4.5-4.8 million tonnes rolling out of Macarthur’s Coppabella and
Moorvale mines near Nebo in 2008/09. This would involve a doubling of Macarthur’s Bowen Basin workforce – which presently stands at about 500 employees and contract workers.................

Read full article in July edition of Mining Advocate magazine at

http://www.industryadvocate.com.au/editions/TMA_July_09.pdf