Caval Ridge Coal Mine

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Caval Ridge Coal Mine is an operating coal mine in Moranbah, Queensland, Australia.

Location

Table 1: Project-level location details

Mine Name	Location	Coordinates (WGS 84)
Caval Ridge Coal Mine	Moranbah, Queensland, Australia	-22.1056069, 148.0475444 (exact)

The map below shows the exact location of the coal mine:

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Project Details

Table 2: Project status

Status	Status Detail	Opening Year	Closing Year
Operating	–	2014	–

Table 3: Operation details

Note: The asterisk (*) signifies that the value is a GEM estimated figure.

Capacity (Mtpa)	Production (Mtpa)	Year of Production	Mine Type	Mining Method	Mine Size (km2)	Mine Depth (m)	Workforce Size
11	14.894	2022	Surface	Open Pit	14	60*	917*

Table 4: Coal resources and destination

Total Reserves (Mt)	Year of Total Reserves Recorded	Total Resources (Mt)	Coalfield	Coal Type	Coal Grade	Primary Consumer/ Destination
318	–	666	Bowen	Bituminous	Met	Hay Point Coal Terminal

Table 5: Ownership and parent company

Owner	Parent Company	Headquarters
BHP Billiton Mitsubishi Alliance Pty Ltd	BHP [50%]; Mitsubishi Corporation [50%]	Australia

Expansion/Extension

Table 6: Project status

* Added capacity of a coal mine refers to the enhancement in the mine's production capabilities beyond its initial production capacity.

Status	Status Detail	Project Type	Project Phase	Added Capacity (Mtpa)*	Start Year
Proposed	Pre-Permit	Extension	–	15	2025 (planned)

Note: The above section was automatically generated and is based on data from the GEM April 2024 Global Coal Mine Tracker dataset.

Background

The Caval Ridge mine is an existing open-cut expansion of the Peak Downs mine. The mine is located 20 km south-west of Moranbah, in Queensland, Australia, north of Peak Downs Mine, on the northern and southern sides of the Peak Downs Highway, and is currently operated by Thiess and owned by BHP Mitsubishi Alliance (BMA).

Caval Ridge Mine consists of two open-cut pits: Horse Pit and Heyford Pit.

As of 2021, BMA is pursuing an extension (the Horse Pit Extension Project) which will extend the Horse Pit in an easterly direction, increasing the mine life by approximately 20 years to 2056. Caval Ridge mine opened in October 2014. Bechtel, an engineering, construction and project management company, designed and built Caval Ridge.

An Environmental Impact Statement was completed by 2010. At that time, there was a notional commissioning date for the mine expansion of 2013. The project would produce 5.5 million tonnes of coking coal and employ 1200 people during construction and 500 when operating.

In its July 2010 development report, BHP Billiton announced that the board had approved US$2.4 billion of "pre-commitment expenditure was approved to accelerate development" of four projects, one of them being the Caval Ridge project.

In 2010 federal election, the Queensland Labor government announced that it had given approval to the project "subject to a raft of strict development and operating constraints". (For the federal Labor government, Queensland electorates were crucial to retaining government, especially following the dumping of Queensland-based Kevin Rudd as Prime Minister). The go-ahead for the project was announced by Queensland Treasurer, Andrew Fraser, and Infrastructure and Planning Minister, Stirling Hinchliffe.

The Queensland Government's media release stated that the Coordinator General’s conditions require:

• "A network of 16 air monitoring stations located around the mine and towards the Moranbah township";
• "A Housing Impact Plan to provide worker accommodation and related accommodation in Moranbah"; and
• "Implementation of controls to guard against adverse weather conditions".

Fraser told ABC Radio that "this is a massive project, a $5.5 million tonne expansion, which of itself represents about 2 per cent just by itself of the total coal which is being exported in Queensland at the moment."

A spokeswoman for BHP Billiton stated that BMA would "continue to conduct an open and transparent engagement process with stakeholders".

The mine is expected to have a lifespan of 30 years.

• Operator: Thiess
• Owners: BHP (50%) and Mitsubishi Development (50%)
• Location: 20 km south-west of Moranbah, in Queensland, Australia
• GPS Coordinates: -22.1056069, 148.0475444 (exact)
• Status: Operating
• Production: 7.8 million tonnes (2022)
• Total Resource: 666 million tonnes (2022)
• Mineable Reserves: 318 million tonnes (2022)
• Coal Type: Metallurgical
• Mine Size: 1425 hectares (lease size)
• Mine Type: Surface
• Start Year: 2014
• Source of Financing:

Caval Ridge Southern Circuit

BHP Mitsubishi Alliance will invest US$204 million to totally fund the Caval Ridge Southern Circuit project. This is an 11 kilometre overland conveyor system which will transport coal from Peak Downs mine to the Coal Handling Preparation Plant at the nearby Caval Ridge Mine. The name of the partnership changed when BHP changed its name from BHP Billiton in November 2018.

Greenhouse emissions

In a 2009 project summary on the project, BHP Billiton states that the total direct emissions "from sources within the boundary of the Caval Ridge Coal Mine project", from sources such as "diesel consumption in vehicles, explosives and fugitive emissions of coal seam gas", as 8.1 million million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalents over the life of the mine. It estimates that a further 11.1 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalents over the life of the mine from indirect sources such as "from the consumption of purchased electricity, steam or heat produced by another organisation. These include purchasing electricity for draglines, CHPP, lighting and facilities".

They also estimated that 446.77 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent over the life of the mine from all other sources of emissions such as "the end use of coal, transport of coal via rail to the port, handling of coal at the ports and shipping of coal."

BMA notes that "the end use of coal in metallurgical operations such as steel making accounts for 99 per cent of the Scope 3 emission sources considered in this assessment."

In 2009, the total Australian greenhouse gas emissions, excluding those from land use, land use change and forestry activities, were estimated to be 537 million tonnes.

Ecological impacts

In the creation of the Caval Ridge mine Betchel relocated 10,000 animals. "One of many species rescued and relocated by Caval Ridge crews was the echidna—a spiny, ant-eating, egg-laying relative of the platypus."

Export infrastructure

Coal is transported by rail to BMA's Hay Point Coal Terminal for export.

Mine Extension

When the mine opened in October 2014, Mitsubishi said it was possible that they might look to expand it prior to 2020.

As of 2021, the company is pursuing plans for its Caval Ridge Mine Horse Pit Extension Project. (Mining activities are currently scheduled to reach the limit of the approved Horse Pit extent during Financial Year (FY) 2025.) If approved, the extension — which will increase the mine footprint, not its annual tonnage — is projected to extend the mine’s life from the 2030s to the 2050s.

In November 2022, the project gained publicity for being one of several projects located in Great Barrier Reef catchments and floodplains that was exempted from needing an environmental impact statement (EIS) by the Queensland government because it is proposed it would produce less than two million tonnes of coal a year. Without an EIS, the public could be excluded from providing comments on the project's terms of reference. This would instead leave the mining company to largely define what issues they address in their environmental assessments.

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Additional data

To access additional data, including an interactive map of world coal mines, a downloadable dataset, and summary data, please visit the Global Coal Mine Tracker on the Global Energy Monitor website.