Minerva, located 45 kilometres south of Emerald in Queensland’s Bowen Basin, is a joint venture between manager Felix (70%) and Sojitz Corporation (30%).
The open cut development has a 26.8 million tonne reserve with an estimated mine life of 11 years.
Overburden stripping will begin within the next six months followed by commercial production in FY2006. Felix has identified Japan, Korea, Taiwan, India, the Phillippines and China as target markets.
The capital cost of the project equates to $27 per annual production tonne, and average cash operating cost for the first full year of production is estimated to be $35 per tonne (FOB Gladstone).
