"Investors are not going to be eager to invest hundreds of millions to bring coal mines back to life which they know are unpopular in the political and social landscape."
While there are dozens of greenfield desktop mines...there's not many, if any, mothballed coal mines of significance left in Australia.
Underinvestment over the last ten years is an understatement.... While I've seen over a dozen operations come online in Queensland, I know of dozens more EPCs and MDLs in Queensland which could be profitable if they were funded right now. The biggest issue is selecting which one gets the go ahead otherwise the market gets flooded with coal and things bust real hard. It's where instantaneous capitalism fails and central planning wins. This leads to hesitation when getting funding approved in all but projects which kick the can down the road, that is, mine life extension projects and no new green fields. It's gotta be a tough gig in the government approval departments.
WHC Price at posting:
$4.76 Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held
(20min delay)