German creek

The coal mines mining black coal from the German Creek Formation near Middlemount in Queensland consist of two open pits; Lake Lindsay and Oak Park and two underground operations; Aquila and Grasstree. They are all owned by American mining company Anglo American Metallurgical Coal (AAMC) and Mitsu Coal Holdings Australia and operated by their subsidiary Capcoal.

German Creek Produces High Quality Hard Coking Coal

These Capcoal operations produce quality hard coking premium coal for exporting to overseas steel makers. The German Creek sequence consists of five coal seams called the; German Creek, Pleiades, Aquila, Tieri and Corvus seams, all within the Capcoal mining leases covering 27,343 hectares.

German Creek is in the Heart of the Bowen Basin

The Capcoal mines are located 25 kilometres to the south west of Middlemount, 240 kilometres from Mackay and within commuting distance from the regional centres of Emerald and Rockhampton, in the heart of the black coal rich Bowen Basin. There are approximately 900 people employed in the Capcoal German Creek operations.

12 Million Tonnes of Coal Produced Annually at German Creek

The Capcoal Mines at German Creek produce almost 12 million tonnes of coal yearly of which over eight million tonnes is high quality pulverised coal injection (PCI) or hard coking coal. After the coal is processed it is taken 360 kilometres by rail to the Dalrymple Bay Coal Terminal where it is loaded onto ships for exporting to the company's overseas customers in Latin America, Europe and throughout Asia. The estimated coal reserves at the German Creek Capcoal operations exceeds one billion tonnes with mineable reserves totalling 125 million tonnes.

German Creek Mine is Environmentally Aware

Capcoal is applying technology at the German Creek Mine to clean combust waste coal mine gas(WCMG). Coal mining releases trapped gas from coal seams as it is being mined. This gas is a safety hazard and has always been problematic to coal miners. It has to be taken from the mine by means of the mine ventilation system and as it is primarily made up of methane it is 20 times worse in its global warming potential than is co2. However, it can be put to good use as a fuel for power generation.

The technology employed at the German Creek coal mine not only captures this harmful gas and prevents it from reaching the atmosphere, it uses the gas to fuel a 45 MW power station and sells the power into the Queensland power grid. By doing this the German Creek Mine can abate 1.2 million tonnes of CO2 a year throughout the life of the mine. This will have the same effect as would the planting of five million trees or taking 350,000 cars off the road a year. The German Creek WCMG Project was made possible with a $15 million grant from the Australian Federal Government under its Greenhouse Gas Abatement Program.

The German Creek Mine environmental concerns don't stop with the catching of WCMG, it also keeps its land rehabilitation up to date by remaining only half a panel behind the coal mining operation at any one time. It is also involved in various environmental and biodiversity studies and programs.