The Alpha Coal Project is a

coal mine Coal mining is the process of resource extraction, extracting coal from the ground or from a mine. Coal is valued for its Energy value of coal, energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to Electricity generation, generate electr ...

and railway project in

Queensland Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...

, Australia. The development is expected to cost A$6.9 billion. Coal exports would leave the country via port facilities at

Abbot Point The Port of Abbot Point is home to the North Queensland Export Terminal (NQXT), the most northerly deepwater coal port of Australia, situated approximately north-west of the town of Bowen, Queensland. Established in 1984, it consists of a ra ...

after being transported along a 495 km rail line. The project is being jointly developed by the Indian conglomerate GVK and Hancock Coal. Hancock holds a 21% interest in the project. The life of mine is expected to be 30 years. The mine is the first to be approved by both the

Government of Queensland The Queensland Government is the state government of Queensland, Australia, a parliamentary constitutional monarchy. Government is formed by the party or coalition that has gained a majority in the state Legislative Assembly, with the governo ...

and the Federal Government to be built in the

Galilee Basin The Galilee Basin is a large inland geological basin in the western Queensland region of Australia. The Galilee Basin is part of a larger Carboniferous to Mid-Triassic basin system that contains the Cooper Basin, situated towards the south-west ...

. State approval was granted on the 29 May 2012 and federal approval was granted on the 23 August 2012. According to GVK Hancock Coal managing director Paul Mulder, it is also the first fully integrated project to be built in Australia. The major benefit of this is that queues of ships waiting for cargo off-shore from the port can be avoided. The mine is to be built about 40 km northwest of the small town of

Alpha Alpha (uppercase , lowercase ) is the first letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals, it has a value of one. Alpha is derived from the Phoenician letter ''aleph'' , whose name comes from the West Semitic word for ' ...

Central West Queensland Central West Queensland (abbreviated CWQ) is a remote region in the Australian state of Queensland which covers 396,650.2 km2. The region lies to the north of South West Queensland and south of the Gulf Country. It has a population of appr ...

. 4,000 staff are expected to be employed during construction with another 2,000 needed for on-going operations. The Minister for Environment

Tony Burke Anthony Stephen Burke (born 4 November 1969) is an Australian politician serving as Leader of the House, Minister for Home Affairs and Minister for the Arts. He is a member of the Australian Labor Party (ALP), and has served as member of ...

has stipulated the project must adhere to 19 conditions aimed at protecting the

Great Barrier Reef The Great Barrier Reef is the world's largest coral reef system, composed of over 2,900 individual reefs and 900 islands stretching for over over an area of approximately . The reef is located in the Coral Sea, off the coast of Queensland, ...

. Peak production is expected to reach 80 million tonnes per year. The first coal production is planned to occur during the 2015/16 financial year. It is expected to deliver coal to ship at $55 a tonne. This is because ore at the mine is easy to mine and the terrain between the mine and port is relatively flat. A 2013

Oxford University The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the second-oldest continuously operating u ...

study forecast a coal price of at least $US90 to go forward and $150 to generate economic gains for the project. A slowing in demand from China was also cited as a concern which would influence the viability of the mine.

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Alpha
{{coord, -23.251, 146.455, format=dms, display=title Barcaldine Region Coal mines in Queensland

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