While considered a greenfield underground project, up to 7Mtpa of run-of-mine coal will be transported via an overland conveyor for processing at the company’s Moranbah North longwall mine.

Consequently the coal-handling and preparation plant at Moranbah North will be expanded, including the construction of new ROM and product stockpiles.

The overland conveyor also allows coal to be exported through Abbot Point using Moranbah North’s existing rail facilities, with no upgrades required.

But in its environmental impact statement for the project, consultancy Hansen Bailey said the subsidence of the Blair Athol to Mackay rail line might require the permanent relocation of this line from the proposed mining area.

Subsidence impacts will be looked at more closely in the upcoming environmental impact statement while Queensland’s Department of Environment and Resource Management is welcoming feedback to the draft terms of reference released yesterday.

The Grosvenor project is expected to create up to 1000 jobs with construction planned to start in 2012.

Located in mining lease application 70378 in the northern Bowen Basin, the area is about 2km west of the Isaac Plains open cut mine.

The land is mainly used for grazing with the bulk owned by two private landowners, while Arrow Energy is also extracting coal seam gas onsite.

Power transmission lines and water pipelines also traverse the project area.

Anglo American Metallurgical Coal chief executive Seamus French said the establishment of the project demonstrated the company’s commitment to Queensland.

“It is our objective to develop a high-quality operation adjacent to our existing Moranbah North facility that will offer benefits to the community, the state and the people we employ, while at the same time enabling AAMC to continue to provide our customers with the high-quality metallurgical coal this region is renowned for,” he said.