It took 38 years but BHP Billiton Mitsubishi Alliance’s (BMA) Queensland coal operation passed a major milestone recently when the company shipped its 1 billionth tonne of coal from the Bowen Basin mines in central Queensland.
It’s thought to be the first company, with help from its predecessors in the basin, to achieve such a milestone.
Peter Beattie, premier of Queensland, helped load the memorable shipment on to a bulk carrier bound for India, one of several steel-making markets driving increasing demand for coal.
The company says that 1 billion tonnes of high-quality coking coal, used mostly in steelmaking, would produce enough steel to construct 28,400 Sydney Harbour Bridges, one of which would require 53,000 tonnes of steel. If placed end to end, that’s enough bridges to stretch from Sydney to Rome — and back.
BMA has no plans to rest. BMA Chief Executive John Smith said his company is entering the second phase of a A$230-million expansion at the Hay Point coal terminal. Improvements will boost annual capacity by 4 million tonnes to 44 million tonnes this year. If further expansion plans meet with approval, capacity could reach 59 million tonnes per year by the second half of 2006.
BMA was created in June 2001 as a partnership between BHP Billiton and Japan’s Mitsubishi Development. BMA owns and manages seven coal mines in the Bowen Basin and the Hay Point coal terminal. It also operates the South Walker Creek Mine on behalf of BHP Mitsui Coal.
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