Kogan creek

The Kogan Creek open cut black coal mine in Queensland's Surat Basin, near the town of Chinchilla, was developed in 2006 to supply coal to the adjacent Kogan Creek Power Station that was commissioned in 2007. The mine was developed as a greenfield project by Golding Contractors Pty Ltd for the Queensland Government owned CS Energy Limited. Golding Contractors have continued its association with CS Energy by being retained as the ongoing mine manager and operator. The mine is expected to have a life of 11 years exploiting a rather thin coal seam deposit ideally suited to power generation. The Kogan Creek mine is primarily manned by a local workforce.

The Kogan Creek Mine and Power Station are Both Owned by CS Energy
The Kogan Creek Power Station, that is also owned by CS Energy, is provided with 2.8 million tonnes of coal a year from the Kogan Creek mine. The coal is transported directly to the power station from the mine by way of a four kilometre long overland conveyor. The power station that produces 750 MW is used as a base-load generator, producing power 24 hours a day, seven days a week throughout the year. Sufficient electricity to power one million homes. The high quality of coal mined at Kogan Creek means that it doesn't require prior treatment before being delivered to the power station. This means it doesn't require washing, a feature that conserves a lot of water that would otherwise be needed. The power station is also dry cooled, a feature that allows it to use 90 percent less water than an equivalent sized power station that is water cooled.

Shallow Overburden at the Kogan Creek Mine
Overburden covering the coal seam at the Kogan Creek Mine is relatively shallow having a thickness no more than 12 to 15 metres. The three coal seams being mined, M seam, N seam and O seam, have a total thickness of 12 metres. The coal is located in flat 0.1 to three metre thick seams that are parted by a thin layer of clay and rock between each seam. Coal is selectively mined from the seams with the use of 12 cubic metre front end loaders that load 90 tonne Komatsu HD785 coal haulage trucks. These trucks take the coal to the Run of Mill (ROM) pad. It is then taken from the pad to the crusher before it goes directly to the power station via the overland conveyor. The waste clay and rock that is extracted from between the seams of coal is taken to the spoil dump.

The overburden above the coal deposit at the Kogan Creek coal mine consists of rock, clay and soil. This overburden is removed with the use of 250 tonne excavators that can remove up to 15 cubic metres with each bucket full. The overburden is loaded into 150 tonne Terex MT3300 haulage trucks. The trucks dump their loads at spoil dumps that are later used to progressively refill the void created with the mining of the coal. Waste ash from the power station is deposited in ash cells at the spoil dumps. Waste ash produced at the power station is mixed with water and pumped via a pipeline to the ash cell at the mine site where it is covered with spoil. The ash is deposited in the void created by the mining of the coal along with the overburden. This is all topped off with top soil and contoured into an undulating surface before being revegitated as part of the rehabilitation process.
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