Bowen Coking Coal Ltd has appointed BUMA Australia Pty Ltd to provide mining services to its 100% owned Broadmeadow East Mine (BME) in Queensland, Australia.
First phase mobilisation of site infrastructure, ancillary equipment, haul tucks and a Hitachi EX3600 excavator are underway and site work is expected to commence within the next two weeks, BCC said.
Bowen has appointed BUMA on a three-year contract, with the option to extend for a further year (at Bowen election) to operate the BME mine, using its own equipment, staff, systems and procedures in accordance with production requirements set by Bowen.
The contract also makes provision for the seamless transition into the Burton mine at already agreed rates and production volumes, which the company intends to trigger immediately on completion of the Burton transaction.
The Broadmeadow East Project was acquired from Peabody Energy in June 2020 for A$1 million ($724,086) plus a royalty of A$1 per tonne for the first 1.5 Mt sold. The project hosts a 33 Mt resource and was initially planned to be mined though conventional truck and shovel open-cut mining at a rate of 800,000 t/y to 1 Mt/y over a period of between five to seven years.
A fast-tracked program for this contract targets the same tonnages to be mined at an average rate of circa 1.2 Mt/y over a shorter period.
Bowen Coking Coal Managing Director and CEO, Gerhard Redelinghuys, said: “We welcome the experienced team from BUMA on-board and we look forward to a long and mutually prosperous partnership. BME is a critical building block in Bowen plans to become Australia next significant independent coking coal producer.
“The rapid start-up of production from BME will be a testament to the team ability to transform a green fields project into a producing mine in a short time frame. Bringing BME into production diversifies the Bowen production base and will be the first of a number of our metallurgical coal projects to be exported from the world-class Dalrymple Bay Coal Terminal. It’s a great time to be bringing on our second producing asset in this extraordinary high priced environment.
“This agreement with BUMA puts Bowen in a very strong position to expand production further via a quick start-up of the larger, adjoining Burton mine post-transaction completion.”
Coal mined from BME will initially be hauled to Fitzroy Australia Carborough Downs coal handling and preparation plant where it will be washed and exported to global steel producers through the Dalrymple Bay Coal Terminal under an infrastructure access agreement.
BUMA Australia was established in 2021 to acquire the Open Cut Mining business of Downer. This acquisition included the transition of all people, mining services contracts, assets, systems and intellectual property from a business which has successfully provided mining and civil services in diverse locations and across many commodities for over 75 year including recent contracts with the BHP Mitsubishi Alliance and Stanwell.