Mine Details
Sonoma
http:www.qcoal.com.au
thermal-black-coal, Town, DiDo
Phone:
Address:
Bowen Development Rd, Collinsville, QLD, 4804
State: Bowen Development Rd, Collinsville, QLD, 4804
Email:
The Sonoma black coal open pit mine near Collinsville in the Bowen Basin Region of Queensland was established by QCoal in 2007. It has been, and still is, operated by Leighton Contractors and is currently owned by QCoal under joint venture arrangements with a Hong Kong trading company, Watami Trading, Taiwans largest steel producer, China Steel and a member of the JFE Steel Group, JFE Shoji Trade Corporation. Facts concerning the Sonoma Mine are as follows:
- The Sonoma Coal Mine produces four million tonnes of coal products a year, primarily thermal and coking coal for exporting to China, Taiwan, Korea and Japan from its resource of 170 million tonnes. Mining contractor Leightons are responsible for all the overburden removal as well as the mining of the coal once it is exposed. The design, construction and ongoing operation of the coal handling and preparation plant (CHPP) has been and is still carried out by Sedgman Limited.
- Leightons Holdings limited are an international company based in Queensland with a workforce, at the Sonoma Mine, of 280 full time employees, mostly working a seven days on, seven days off, 12 hour a day roster. Leightons have been associated with the Sonoma open pit mine from its beginnings, having commenced operations there in October 2007. It was originally awarded the contract to handle all the mining operations at the Sonoma Mine for five years and this has been extended for a further five years. Leightons employ the Sonoma Mine site senior executive and besides having to oversee the mining operations, the senior executive also has the responsibility of the CHPP although it is operated by a different contractor, Sedgeman Limited.
- Most of the Sonoma Mine waste material is drilled and blasted to allow it to be loaded onto trucks but there is some areas where this can be achieved with free digging methods. The overburden is taken to allocated waste dumps and the exposed coal is then mined and taken to the ROM (run-of-mine) load out in readiness for processing. Cast blast and dozer push techniques are also used in order to maximise mining efficiency. All equipment used is maintained on-site by specialist teams.
- The CHPP, operated by Sedgemans, processes 800 tonnes of coal an hour. The plant was designed and set up by Sedgeman Limited, a major Queensland mining services and engineering company. Sedgeman Limited employ 20 people at the plant. Once the coal is treated at the CHPP it is taken by rail to Abbot Point Coal Facility for shipment to the company's overseas customers.
- The Sonoma Mine is situated 105 kilometres from where the Abbot Point Coal Terminal is located. The port is owned by PCQ ( Ports Corporation of Queensland) and it is the closest coal exporting port in Australia to the Asian market. A port with no congestion and proven reliability. There are current plans to significantly expand the Abbot Point Coal Terminal to allow it to cater for increased coal production in future years.
- Fifty percent of the coal produced at the Sonoma open pit mine is export quality thermal coal used in power generation to help satisfy the energy demand of the growing Asian economies. The other 50 percent is hard coking coal, a coal specifically used in steel making.
Here is a bit of a look around Sonoma Mine
