Gregory Crinum Mine

Background

Gregory open cut coal mine became operational in 1979, with the first shipment taking place in 1980. Production has been scaled back since the commissioning of the adjacent Crinum underground longwall mine in 1997. Gregory has a current production capacity of 1.25 million tonnes of coal per annum.

Crinum mine's underground production from in-seam development commenced in October 1994, with the full long wall production starting in mid-1997. Crinum underground mine is capable of producing 4.25 million tonnes of coking coal annually.

Location

Gregory Crinum is located 60km north west of the rural centre of Emerald and 375km north west of Gladstone and the Capricorn Coast.  Employees working at the Gregory Crinum Mine live in the Emerald Region.

Operations

Gregory coal is extracted by open cut methods using a single dragline for overburden removal. A contract mining and haulage operation comprising of hydraulic excavators and coal haulers mines and transports the coal from the pits to the mine preparation plant.

The Crinum working section is mined between 80m and 220m below the surface by longwall retreat methods. The mine has been designed for production from a single longwall and two development panels. Extraction from the long wall is from a block width of 270 metres, with full seam height being mined. Coal extracted from Crinum is transported on a 15km single-flight overland conveyor to the Gregory preparation plant for processing into three products - hard coking coal, weak coking coal and thermal coal.

Markets

Gregory Crinum coal is sold to South and East Asia, Europe, the Americas, India and Australia.