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Hunter terminal is on schedule, NCIG

Recent newspaper reports have said that the completion of Newcastle’s third export coal terminal could face significant delays to reach full capacity as BHP Billiton is well behind schedule in starting meaningful work on remediation dredging due to contamination from the old Newcastle Steelworks.

The Australian Financial Review recently reported that there have been suggestions from industry sources that plans to reach a full annual capacity of 33 million tonnes by the end of 2010 could be delayed by as much as 12 months.

However, a spokesperson for the Newcastle Coal Industry Group (NCIG) told MINING DAILY that the coal terminal was on track for completion early next year.

“It is currently standing at 55% completion,” the spokesperson said.

“At this stage, we will be beginning operations in March and we will certainly be loading coal in the first half of next year.”

According to the newspaper report, the NCIG — which is mad up of six companies including BHP, Felix Resources, Centennial Coal and Whitehaven Coal — may be forced to look at doing further dredging work of their own to accommodate significantly smaller panamax vessels.

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