Mastermyne’s ‘nook and cranny’ mining at Gregory Crinum a cleaner method

The rise of junior miners is paving the way for a better environmental approach to unlocking the Bowen Basin, and a Mackay company is leading the charge.

A greener mining method is unlocking forgotten coal reserves in the Bowen Basin, with a leading Mackay company carving out more success in operations.

Mastermyne managing director and CEO Tony Caruso said the ASX-listed company was contracted to Gregory Crinum and Cook Colliery operations, with first coal expected by the end of the year.

Mr Caruso, at the Resource Industry Network briefing on Friday, said Mastermyne’s $600 million contract to the Sojitz owned Gregory Crinum Mine would use bord and pillar methods to extract an expected 1.5-1.8 million tonnes a year over six years.

“Effectively what we’re doing is we’re going in and mining areas that were left behind so I think that’s one of the interesting features of this style of mining,” Mr Caruso said.

“We’re not opening up new mines and digging new holes in the ground; we’re going back in and taking remnant coal that’s been left behind by the longwall mining process.

“It’s very efficient, it’s low cost, low capital and we’re basically really just squeezing the last out of these assets that would have otherwise been made redundant or were redundant.”

The operation is part of a resurgence in what are termed junior miners – mine owners and operators outside the realm of big corporates such as Rio Tinto and BHP.

Mr Caruso said junior miners typically had a “much smaller shareholder base” or were single, privately owned operations such as QCoal and Bowen Coking Coal.

The open cut component of Sojitz Blue's Gregory Crinum operation. Picture: supplied

He said bord and pillar mining, too, had experienced a resurgence in recent years.

“The methodology has been around for a long time,” he said.

“But there is a little bit of a resurgence because what has happened is over the past 20 years is most of these mines have gone to these big, high productivity longwall operations and what we’re seeing now is that a lot of these assets are changing hands,” he said.

“We’ve seen Vale exit the sector, you’ve seen Rio exit the sector, Glencore has already said they’re not opening up any new assets, South 32 seem to be intimating they’re leaving the coal sector and obviously BHP is much the same – they’re selling off their BMC assets.

“As the big guys are leaving, these junior miners and these more entrepreneurial type owners are coming in and buying the assets off the big guys and coming in with a very different mining method.”

Mr Caruso said junior miners operated differently and approached operations with a different mindset, and the bord and pillar method had a “much lower environmental impact” than opening new operations.

Sojitz Blue's Gregory Crinum operation. Picture: supplied

However, insurance remained an issue of concern for operators, he said.

“I think there has been a fairly large global push away from fossil fuels by insurance companies but if you break that down into a micro level, these projects are definitely less risk because we’re going into areas that have already been mined,” he said.

“The infrastructure is there, they’re known geologies, the mining method is actually quite low risk.

“If we hit anything that is problematic in terms of underground geology, we can basically just turn left and keep going unlike longwall operations.

“It’s low capital intensity so again you’re not investing huge money like $150 or $180 million to buy a longwall – one continuous mine panel for us is probably around $12 million.”

Mastermyne managing director and CEO Tony Caruso. Picture: Fiona Kroll

Environmentally, Mr Caruso said the bord and pillar would not further scar the landscape with Mastermyne at Gregory Crinum to re-establish underground infrastructure including conveyor systems, ventilation, associated mine services, remediation works and surface infrastructure.

“We’re very conscious of the role we play as a miner and we have a very strong focus on making sure we do our bit in terms of environmental sustainability moving forward,” he said.

“These projects being in existing infrastructure and really going back in and taking coal that would have otherwise been left behind, and the coal that we’re putting into the market, potentially means some other coal mine might not open up so other big companies won’t.

“This is all metallurgical coal. At the moment the demand is still there for met coal.”

Mr Caruso said planning works were progressing to restart operations at Cook Colliery currently in care and maintenance mode.

Originally published as Mastermyne’s ‘nook and cranny’ mining at Gregory Crinum a cleaner method