{"id":542,"date":"2016-04-14T16:02:24","date_gmt":"2016-04-14T16:02:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/minutes.machine.market\/?p=542"},"modified":"2016-04-14T16:02:24","modified_gmt":"2016-04-14T16:02:24","slug":"milestone-for-revived-mine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/machine.market\/blog\/milestone-for-revived-mine\/","title":{"rendered":"Milestone for revived Isaac Plains mine"},"content":{"rendered":"
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THE next big milestone Stanmore Coal’s managing director Nick Jorss looks forward to is seeing off the first shipment of coal in May from the Isaac Plains coal mine.<\/p>\n

It follows Wednesday’s big moment, when the company processed raw coal for the first time.<\/p>\n

The mine is just outside of Moranbah.<\/p>\n

Stanmore Coal bought the mine, which had been mothballed since September 2014, for $1 in July last year from Sumitomo and Vale.<\/p>\n

While the wash plant where the coal was processed was the one the previous owner had used, Stanmore had introduced a new “more efficient” dragline operation, which removed the overburden.<\/p>\n

“We had actually extracted a fair bit (of coal) before that, but it hadn’t gone through the wash plant,” Mr Jorss said.<\/p>\n

“We just ran it (for the first time since taking over last week).<\/p>\n

“It can process 450 tonnes of coal an hour.<\/p>\n

“Now we know it’s up and running and working. That’s the main thing.”<\/p>\n

He said the buyers of the coal had predominately all been finalised, with most of the metallurgical coal heading to steel mills in Japan and Korea.<\/p>\n

He expects the first shipment to leave in May, around the same time of the mines’ official opening.<\/p>\n

He said most of the 150 workers from the broader region required for work had been recruited, through Gladstone-based Golding Contractors.<\/p>\n

It was reported earlier that more than $7\u2002million in royalties, in addition to state and federal government taxes, would flow back to the state.<\/p>\n

It was hoped the mine would have a 10-year lifespan.<\/p>\n

During that time it would set aside $32\u2002million for the eventual rehabilitation of the mine site.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n