Boundary hill

The Boundary Hill open cut mine produces a sub-bituminous, low sulphur thermal coal that is primarily used to generate power in Queensland. It is part of the Callide mining operation that includes three other open pits, The Hut pits, Trap Gully and Dunn Creek. All pits use the dragline, truck and shovel method of open cut coal mining.

Boundary Hill Mine Owned by Anglo American
The Boundary Hill Mine is owned by Anglo Coal (Callide Management)Pty Ltd, a fully owned subsidiary of Anglo American. Without the mine extension project it's coal resource was due to expire in 2014 but the Boundary Hill South open pit extension will give the mine a production life of a further 18 years.

The Boundary Hill South Extension will Retain Callide Production at 10 Million Tonnes Annually
The Boundary Hill South Pit Extension takes in a site averaging 1,069 hectares with 317 hectares actually being subjected to actual mining operations. The extension project itself will consist of new pits and spoil dumps but make use of all existing infrastructure and personnel. Production will also remain the same, between 3.5 and four million tonnes of ROM (run of mine) coal annually. This will retain the total Callide coal output of about 10 million tonnes a year.

Most Boundary Hill Coal is Used for Domestic Power Generation
The Boundary Hill Mine produces unwashed coal that is loaded onto railway wagons and transported on the Gladstone to Earlsford railway line to the Gladstone and Callide power stations where it is used to produce electricity. Some of the coal produced at the Callide coal mining operation is exported out of the Gladstone port to overseas customers.

Boundary Hill South Extension Activities
The Boundary Hill South pit extension will include the following activities:
- Minor additional mine infrastructure
- The construction of a conveyor to take the coal to the coal handling preparation plant located three kilometres to its north
- The building of a new overburden dump west of the mining operation
- The construction of a haulage road, north of the extension project, to assist in the removal of overburden to be used as backfill in the existing Boundary Hill Mine residual void
- The actual open cut mining operation within the mine extension area

Overburden is removed from the Boundary Hill coal mine with a BE 1350 walking dragline and a hydraulic excavator and a pre-strip truck fleet. The hydraulic excavator loads coal into rear dump trucks that take it to a crusher located within the pit. The coal is either stockpiled at an in-pit ROM stockpile or crushed before being screened at the Coal Handling Plant (CHP). The crushed and screened coal is then taken by conveyor to be further screened and put through a secondary crusher plant. Boundary Hill coal is sold to its clients unwashed and for this reason no tailings are created. Coal fields at the Callide mining operation cover an area of 176 square miles with some seams up to 26 metres thick.

The Boundary Hill Mine is located near the Callide Basin town of Biloela in Central Queensland that has a population of about 6,000 people.