Bounty Mining has completed an upgrade to its Bowen Basin rail facilities in a significant step for the company’s Cook Colliery restart in Queensland.
The Koorilgah rail loop that services the colliery has been upgraded with full axle load capacity trains that will allow for a full capacity of 8500 tonnes (t). The upgrade is expected to reduce operating costs by at least $5/t.
Bounty completed its purchase of the Cook Colliery and Minkango coking coal projects from previous owners Caledon Coal and Blackwater Coal for $31.5 million last December.
The Cook mine suffered from flooding in May 2017, an event that led to Caledon being placed in administration. Previously a longwall operation, Bounty plans to turn Cook into a 2.2Mt/y bord-and-pillar operation.
Bounty was listed on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) on June 19, 2018 after raising $18 million in an IPO (with 51.4 million shares at 35 cents per share).
The company has put funds towards a deferred purchase repayment of its Cook Colliery purchase among other working capital. The company is now the only pure play coking coal miner listed on the ASX.
“We are pleased to have completed the rail upgrade slightly ahead of the original schedule, delivering a meaningful cost saving as indicated in the prospectus released ahead of Bounty’s initial public offering earlier this year,” said Bounty executive chairman Gary Cochrane.