North goonyella

North Goonyella ñ Eaglefield is a combination of an underground mining operation at North Goonyella and an open pit mine at Eaglefield, both on the same lease and both owned by Peabody Energy. The two mining operations are located, 160 kilometres west of Mackay, 50 kilometres south west of Glenden and 17 kilometres from the Burton Gorge Dam, in the Central Queensland Highlands.

Both North Goonyella and Eaglefield Mines Produce Coal for the
Export Market
The North Goonyella Mine is operated as an underground longwall mine that mines premium quality coking coal for the export market. The Eaglefield Mine is an open cut mining operation that produces high quality hard coking coal that is also sold to international customers.

North Goonyella and Eaglefield Mines Share a Common Lease
Peabody Energy acquired the lease, on which both mines operate, in 2004. The lease covers an area of 3,555 hectares. Between the two operations there are a total of 679 personnel employed, including contractors, 519 working at the North Goonyella Mine and 160 at the Eaglefield operation. Although Peabody Energy Australia operate and manage the North Goonyella Mine themselves they have contracted out the operation of the Eaglefield open cut mine to the mining contractor Macmahon.

North Goonyella Coal has High Methane Level
Coal mined at North Goonyella produces rather high levels of methane gas, a feature that lends itself to it being used for electricity generation from future development as a coal bed methane gas producer. Coal mining commenced at the North Goonyella underground mine in 1994 and the coal it mines is exported from the Dalrymple Bay coal terminal, situated south of Mackay, to steel producers in Europe, India, Asia and Japan.

Eaglefield Processes its Coal at the North Goonyella Plant
The Eaglefield open cut mine began production in 2003 and both Eaglefield and North Goonyella share the same coal handling preparation plant (CHPP), tailings disposal storage, the railway loop and rail load out facilities. They also share the same water management system. The North Goonyella Mine had a proven and possible coal resource of over 103 million tonnes at the end of December 2010.

North Goonyella Roof Collapse Halts Production in 2011
Mining operations at North Goonyella ceased for a period in 2011 when a roof collapse blocked entrance to the mine in mid August. The roof fall occurred at the same time mining had been halted for the carrying out a long-wall relocation. Normal production was resumed two months later, in early October.

Eaglefield Uses Blast and Dozer push to Move Inter-burden
The Eaglefield open cut mine that is operated by mining contractor Macmahon produces up to 2.5 million tonnes of high quality coking and thermal coal a year. The mining method used at Eaglefield is the blasting and dozer push type of operation to remove inter-burden. This technique allows for an increasing number of explosives to be used to blast and throw material across the pit to its final position, eliminating the need to move it by the usual shovel and truck method. After the blast has occurred carry dozers push any remaining material to its final destination.

Owing to the two mines sharing the one site, North Goonyella andEaglefield share in the responsibilities of outside community sponsorship.Such events being the Mackay Festival of the Arts and the QueenslandRegional Achievement and Community Awards.

Update July 2015- Operations at Eaglefield are currently on hold, with equipment parked up onsite. North Goonyella is still operational.