Coal mining company QCoal has awarded a contract to Sedgman to design and construct a tailings dewatering facility at the $1.76bn Byerwen coal mine in central Queensland, Australia.
The Byerwen open-cut coal mine is located around 20km west of Glenden in Queensland’s Bowen Basin. It is being developed by Byerwen Coal, which is a joint venture between QCoal and JFE Steel Australia.
Under the contract, CIMIC Group’s minerals processing company Sedgman will work to reduce the operational risks and power usage at the mine.
It will also look to improve water recovery and management of dewatering chemicals at the mine.
Sedgman managing director Grant Fraser said: “We are pleased to continue working with QCoal with a key focus on reducing impacts and undertaking environmentally responsible practices. The tailings dewatering contract at Byerwen is a great opportunity to achieve joint goals in ESG, an important focus for the industry.”
Sedgman plans to commence construction work for the Byerwen mine this month. The project is expected to complete in mid-2022.
Production from the Byerwen Mine is shipped to Abbot Point Coal Terminal in Queensland for exports.
Being developed in phases, the project is estimated to extract up to 15 million tonnes per annum (Mtpa) of run-of-mine (ROM) coal and produce 10Mtpa of export-quality coal.
The Byerwen coal mine, which is hosted within the North Bowen Basin, is estimated to hold coal resources of approximately 690Mt.