Callide

Anglo American has been offering its Queensland located Callide open pit coal mine for sale over the last few years but to date no suitable company has been chosen to take over the supply of coal from the mine to Queensland's domestic power generation plants, specifically the Callide Power Station.

The Callide Mine Supplies Coal to the State's Power Generators
Although the Callide open cut mine has a long term contract to supply coal to the Callide Power Station it also sends its product, by rail, to other customers at Gladstone. The Callide Mine produces around eight million tonnes of low sulphur, sub-bituminous thermal coal a year from its coal reserves of 225 million tonnes. The coal field that contains the Callide coal seam covers an area of 176 square kilometres, which at times is 26 metres thick.

Callide Consists of Four Open pit Mines
The Callide Mine is located 20 kilometres from Biloela and 120 kilometres south west of Gladstone. It is made up of four open pit mines; the Boundary Hill, Hut, Trap Gulley and the southern area of Dunn Creek. The pits are operated with the use of dragline, trucking and shovelling methods to remove the overburden and allow access to the coal seam.

Callide Mine Important to the Town of Biloela
The Callide Mine is situated in the Callide Basin of Central Queensland, near the town of Biloela. The regional city of Rockhampton is 145 kilometres to its north and Gladstone 120 kilometres to its east. The mine is important economically to the town of Biloela, as it is its main employer and provides apprentice and traineeships for many of the town's young. The only other employment opportunities at Biloela come from the power station, the meat works and grain crop farming. The mine works in partnership with the local high school in an endeavour to promote employment opportunities and development of skills within the community.

Callide Mine Enters Agreement With Land Traditional Owners
A landmark Cultural Heritage Investigation Management Agreement was entered into with the Gangulu and Palmtree Wuturu traditional owners of the land, on which the Callide Mine is situated, in 2004. The agreement covers aspects of the management of the site and ongoing relationships between the parties. The Callide mining lease contains 10 either endangered, or rare plant species and this requires mine management working closely with NSW government conservation authorities, as well as local groups, to ensure their protection and regeneration where possible. This ongoing work is imperative to the rehabilitation process that takes place when mining is completed in mined out pits.

Callide Mine Employees Made Environmentally Aware
Callide Mine employees are made conscious of environmental concerns regarding the conserving of soil and the need to create new stable landforms that contain watercourses and new plantings, as well as the recycling of used metal, paper and oil etc. in a comprehensive waste management policy. The land contained in the mining lease has long and close links with the beef industry and the mine management is conscious of the need to plan rehabilitation along those lines as well as returning the landforms to its past native ecosystems through the construction of wildlife corridors.
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