Proposed Saraji mine continuation project to require further assessment

Plans for a proposed continuation to a major Bowen Basin coal mine will require further assessment after plans for the mine’s life extension were lodged last month.

BMA's Saraji Coal Mine near Moranbah

Plans to extend the life of a major Central Queensland coal mine will need to undergo further assessment before it receives approval, after plans were lodged for the project last month.

An application was lodged by mining giant BMA with the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water in May, proposing the continuation of the Saraji Mine Grevillea Pit.

If the plans are given the tick of approval the mine would have its life extended by 30 years.

The proposal stated that the pit in its current form was expected to “exhaust current resources” during the 2025 financial year.

BMA's Saraji Coal Mine near Moranbah

The proposed action would see the footprint of the mine extended into the mining lease right next to it and would continue the existing Grevillea Pit up to the 2055 financial year.

According to the decision document, which was released through the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act (EPBC Act) public portal, the proposed continuation project will require further assessment and approval under the act before it can proceed.

The one-page document states the proposed project was deemed a “controlled action”, which are projects that are considered to likely have “significant impacts”.

According to the DCCEEW website, projects deemed to be a controlled actions proceed to the next stages of the process, which includes and environmental assessment and then approvals.

Saraji Mine is a metallurgical coal operation near Dysart, about three-and-a-half hours west of Rockhampton or three hours southwest of Mackay, which first opened in 1974 and mines about 16 million tonnes per annum.

The mine was subject to controversy in January when 27-year-old BEP Engineering and Maintenance worker Luke O’Brien was fatally injured.

Mr O’Brien and another person had been working on the fuel-bay area of the when he became pinned between a mining ute and a B Double fuel tanker.

The tragedy came less than five years after Gracemere father Allan Houston, whose dozer rolled 18 metres down an embankment at the mine on December 31, 2018 and came to rest upside down in a pool of mud and water.

The 49-year-old was found trapped in the cabin with his seatbelt fastened and tragically did not survive.

Allan Houston was killed in a mining accident at Saraji Mine near Dysart.

In September 2023, Resources Safety and Health Queensland suspended Saraji’s operations for working near bodies of water after a fatal hazard was identified more than four years after a dozer driver drowned in a pool of mud and water.

The mine safety watchdog also called out supervisor competencies in a Mine Record Entry that lists a number of major safety issues at Dysart’s Saraji mine.

In April mining giant BMA, which operates the Saraji Mine, completed the sale of its Blackwater and Daunia mines to Whitehaven Coal for a total of $6.4 billion.