Port and rail infrastructure – including the port at Gladstone – is also beginning to operate as Queensland coal miners lobby the state government to relax environmental laws to allow speedier pumping of water out of open cut mines.

"All ports, with the exception of Port Alma and Bundaberg, are open and operating," Ferguson is quoted as saying in the The Sydney Morning Herald.

About 45 of Queensland's 57 mines are not working at full capacity, with about 15 of these open cut mines that are overbrimming with water.

Queensland Resources Council chief executive Michael Roche said the urgency of pumping this water was critical, despite the desirability of strong environmental controls over water pumped out of mines.

While the Queensland government has processed 26 requests for temporary environmental programs – which allow miners to pump water directly out of mines and into creeks – a further 15 are waiting to be processed.

Roche said he wanted the state government to give a blanket approval to expedite the process instead of treating each case individually.

"We are in a position right now where the weather bureau is tracking three cyclones and if you look at traditional weather patterns in central and north Queensland, then the really wet weather kicks in around February and March," he is quoted as saying in The Australian.

"La Nina is forecast to last until May and we certainly hope we don't have another weather event like the one we've had, but we want to be prepared for it as much as possible."

He said the water pumped out of mines and into creeks was hardly of drinking standard but could be treated to a standard suitable for human consumption.

Meanwhile, Queensland Rail National has reopened the Blackwater coal rail network but Xstrata’s Rolleston mine might not start deliveries until late February. Gladstone’s port is expected to hit full capacity by the end of March.

Mines affected by the closure of the Blackwater system included Kestrel, Gregory, Curragh, Minerva and Cook as well as Jellinbah, East, Blackwater and Ensham.

The big Rolleston dragline operation, which can produce up to 8 million tonnes per annum run-of-mine, was not only inundated by the recent wet weather but its 110-kilometre link to the Blackwater line suffered serious damage.

QRN and Xstrata have set up a joint project team for this recovery work.

Xstrata hopes to rail Rolleston coal before the end of February, according to a company spokesperson.

Flood-hit sections of the Blackwater line were reopened last week, allowing mines from Burngrove, near the town of Blackwater, to make deliveries east to Gladstone.

All four of QRN’s coal rail networks are open but all branches of the Blackwater rail system are not yet operational, and there are speed restrictions in other networks since the floods.

The northern Gregory branch of the Blackwater system reopened on Monday, while repairs to track sections west of Burngrove were completed on Tuesday.

QRN said this would allow Sojitz Coal Resources’ Minerva mine to start railing coal.