Arabic version: كوينزلاند تتولى إعادة تأهيل منجم بلاف

According to ABC News, the Bluff coal mine in central Queensland has become an abandoned mine after its liquidators disclaimed its mining lease, environmental authority and exploration permits. The Department of Natural Resources and Mines said the lease had ceased and the Queensland government would manage the site.

The open-cut mine is south of Bluff, about 20 kilometres east of Blackwater and 174 kilometres west of Rockhampton. Bowen Coking Coal bought the operation from Carabella Resources in 2021. BCC entered voluntary administration in July last year, with McGrathNicol’s Mark Holland and Shaun Fraser appointed as administrators. A notice to formally wind up the overarching Bowen PCI Pty Ltd company was published on the Australian Securities and Investments Commission website on September 14.

Carabella received the original 15-year mining lease in 2016 for up to 1.8 million tonnes a year of metallurgical coal and began mining in 2019. After coal prices fell, the company entered voluntary administration in November 2020, when coal was priced at US$72 per tonne. The mine went into care and maintenance in December 2020, before BCC restarted operations and mined its first coal there in the first quarter of 2022. The site has been in care and maintenance since 2023.

Rehabilitation will be handled through the department’s Abandoned Mine Lands Program. Lock the Gate Central Queensland coordinator Claire Gronow said the mine’s closure before its full life could require rehabilitation plans to be redrawn. The environmental permit listed an estimated rehabilitation cost of $12,251,470.50 as of November 6 last year, though the department and Queensland Treasury did not disclose funds paid to the state. The department said it had secured the site and was working with relevant agencies to manage public-safety and environmental risks.