MARKETS

Southland sold to Chinese miner

FAILED miner Gympie Golds Southland coal operations in the Hunter Valley have been snapped up by ...

Angie Tomlinson
Southland sold to Chinese miner

Media reports said Yanzhou would spend more than $100 million redeveloping the coking coal mine to around two million tonnes per annum capacity. Under Gympie Gold’s leadership the longwall produced 1.8Mt in 2003.

Full ramp-up is expected in 18 months time, although initial development production could be only six to nine months away.

Gympie went into voluntary administration and receivership after fire ravaged the colliery over the Christmas period last year.

Since Gympie’s collapse its gold arm – the Eldorado operation in Queensland – was sold to a consortium consisting of Mizuho International, Investec Bank of Australia and Buka Minerals.

Media reports indicated Yanzhou was expected to appoint Australian contractors to operate the mine. Before the fire, Leighton subsidiary Thiess was operating Southland but was forced to retrench its workforce when it encountered unsafe conditions upon re-entry of the mine.

New York listed Yanzhou produced 43.3 million tons last year from its six underground mines in Eastern China. It has proven and probable thermal and coking reserves totalling two billion tons.

In a number of its thick coal seam mines Yanzhou has used top coal caving – a method conceived in China. Southland has been named a target for longwall top coal caving in the past and it would appear likely Yanzhou may seek to employ this method at the mine.

The sale of the colliery to Yanzhou is expected to take six to eight weeks to complete.

TOPICS:

A growing series of reports, each focused on a key discussion point for the mining sector, brought to you by the Mining Monthly Intelligence team.

A growing series of reports, each focused on a key discussion point for the mining sector, brought to you by the Mining Monthly Intelligence team.

editions

ESG Mining Company Index: Benchmarking the Future of Sustainable Mining

The ESG Mining Company Index report provides an in-depth evaluation of ESG performance of 61 of the world's largest mining companies. Using a robust framework, it assesses each company across 9 meticulously weighted indicators within 6 essential pillars.

editions

Mining Magazine Intelligence Exploration Report 2024 (feat. Opaxe data)

A comprehensive review of exploration trends and technologies, highlighting the best intercepts and discoveries and the latest initial resource estimates.

editions

Mining Magazine Intelligence Future Fleets Report 2024

The report paints a picture of the equipment landscape and includes detailed profiles of mines that are employing these fleets

editions

Mining Magazine Intelligence Digitalisation Report 2023

An in-depth review of operations that use digitalisation technology to drive improvements across all areas of mining production