Burton

The Burton coal mine in Queensland is an open pit operation that began life in January 1996 with the Burton open pit that was mined out in June 2005. Two other pits, the Wallanbah and Broadmeadow were completed in 2009. Two more open pits, Plumtree South and Bullock Creek, began production in 2010, are still operational. The open pits at the Burton Mine are mined as satellite operations from the central mine processing plant to which the coal is transported by road. Throughout its operational life the Burton Mine has maintained a coal production level of between 3.5 and 5.7 million tonnes a year.

The Burton Coal Mine Pioneered Mining Methods in the Bowen Basin
The Burton coal mine is located in the northern reaches of the vast coal rich Bowen Basin region of Queensland, 150 kilometres south west of Mackay. It was the first mine in the Bowen Basin to adopt a terrace mining truck and shovel method of open pit coal mining.

Mining Contractor Thiess Have Been With the Burton Mine From the Beginning
The Burton coal mine, that was originally owned by Portman Mining Limited, before being sold to RAG Australia, is now majority owned by Peabody Energy Australia, who have contracted out the mining operation to Thiess. A mining contractor who also designed and constructed the mine in the first instance. Thiess is also responsible for coal processing and loading into the railway wagons that take it to the port for export. Since the mine was opened in 1996 it has produced 60 million tonnes of coal. The Burton coal mining operation produces thermal and hard coking coal that is purchased by customers in South America, India, Europe and Asia.
The setting up of the Burton coal mining project in 1996 involved the construction of :

-400 tonnes an hour coal processing plant
-Train loading facility at Mallawa
-Railway loop
-Water supply dam and distribution system
-Accommodation village
-Mine office
-Coal haulage roads
-Mine access

Burton Mine Expanded in 1998
The original Burton open pit was increased in 1998 from its original 80 metres to 110 metres. At the same time extra infrastructure was constructed to cater for the increase. This included an expansion of the accommodation village, the creation of a truck receival and skyline stockpiling facility at Mallawa, a second 400 tonnes an hour coal processing module and other mine site facilities. The open pits at the Burton Mine are not continuous in their operational capabilities as the Wallanbah pit was just over two kilometres in length and other pits such as Bullock Creek and Plumtree are added as they become necessary. The expansion that took place in 1998 lifted production from two million tonnes to four million tonnes a year.

The mined coal that is removed from the operational pits at the Burton Mine are taken to the central coal processing plant where it is blended and washed at a current feed rate of 5.5 million tonnes a year. As the pits become completed a comprehensive rehabilitation program takes place. This involves the engaging of specialised rehabilitation contractors whose charter is to ensure the land that had been mined is returned to nature in an equal or better condition to what it had been before it was disturbed.

Burton's 9800 liehberr Digger