The State Government may have assessed BMA’s Saraji East mining lease project as ‘suitable to proceed’, but it will effectively remain parked up as the company continues to criticise Queensland’s ‘unsustainable’ coal royalty regime.

This environmental impact statement (EIS) assessment report was released this week for the proposal to extend the Saraji mine near Dysart – a development likely to support 1000 jobs in construction and 500 operational roles.

But the company said the project’s continued progress through the assessment process was totally seperate to any future decisions on capital investment or development.

“This EIS helps BMA preserve future development options in Queensland,” a company spokesman said.

As previously announced by BHP, the group was not committing to investing in any expansion or growth of its operations in Queensland under the present coal royalty regime, he said.

BMA in September announced it was axing about 750 roles across Queensland and planned to mothball its Saraji South operation from this month.

BMA asset president Adam Lancey at the time said the simple fact was the Queensland coal industry was approaching a crisis point.  

“As joint owners of BMA, BHP and Mitsubishi Development do not want to see operations paused or jobs lost, but these are necessary decisions in the face of the combined impact of the Queensland Government’s unsustainable coal royalties and market conditions,” Mr Lancey said.  

The proposed Saraji East longwall operation would mine up to 11Mtpa ROM metallurgical coal to produce up to 8Mtpa of product coal. This equates to about 110 million tonnes for the export market over a 20-year mine life.