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Mining companies upbeat about Galilee Basin coal resource, graziers fear for water supply

Mining companies eyeing off the massive untapped resources of Queensland's Galilee Basin insist the global downturn in the price of coal will prove no impediment to their future plans.

Earlier this week the Queensland Government announced an alternative dumping site for dredge spoil from expansion of the Abbot Point port in north Queensland that will service the new mining venture, a move that was welcomed by the mining industry as it tried to firm up its plans for the Galilee Basin.

It comes as Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk reiterates her position that mining companies in the remote region cannot rely on taxpayer support following a promise made by the former Newman government.

The Galilee Basin, stretching more than 300 kilometres through central western Queensland contains a thermal coal deposit the size of the United Kingdom.

But in nearby towns struggling to make ends meet, opinions are mixed on what mining will mean for them and whether they will ever see it happen.

The big three players in the region - Waratah, Adani and GVK Hancock - hope to eventually mine more than 200 million tonnes of coal a year, hauling it along a massive rail network to Abbot Point for export.

While overproduction looks set to keep the price of coal low for years to come, Josh Euler from GVK Hancock Coal said the future looked bright in the Galilee Basin.
"We really are looking at one of the most significant pieces of regional and economic development our state has seen for decades," he said.

GVK Hancock operates a test pit on the outskirts of Alpha, a small town on the southern fringe of the basin.

Mr Euler said the company had already extracted 125,000 tonnes of coal and shipped it to Asia for a trial run.

"We have a very large, a very flat and a very shallow coal seam and that allows us to implement the kind of mining techniques which dramatically reduce production costs and ensure that our mine is relatively immune to the cyclical ups and downs of the coal prices when we get it up and running."

The Newman government believed opening up the Galilee Basin was so important that last November it committed tens of millions of dollars to help Adani build a rail line to Abbot Point.

But the new Labor government has ruled out honouring this agreement.

"This is free enterprise in the Galilee Basin and the companies need to make sure they have the financials required to commit to funding in the Galilee Basin," Ms Palaszczuk said.
There are also those in the region, such as graziers Bruce and Annette Currie, who remain far from convinced by the promises of coal.

They run a cattle property near the town of Jericho, which borders GVK Hancock's proposed Alpha project.

"Our main concerns with the Galilee Basin mines is first and foremost their impact on our water supply and if it's impacted ... it could potentially destroy our business," Mr Currie said.
Sceptical of promises about water safety, they took the company to court with other landholders and a green group.

Last year, the court recommended the government should either reject the mine or impose a number of environmental conditions, including legally binding "make good agreements".

All parties remain in negotiations.

"If we're impacted and we are on the eastern feed into the Great Artesian Basin - what will that do to other people that are using the Great Artesian Basin as a source of water and what will it do to the regional towns?" Mr Currie said.

"It's very bewildering, what's going to happen. I think there's a huge amount of uncertainty - where is the benefit of the boom period we've been through?"

But Mr Euler said studies undertaken by GVK Hancock showed their projects would not impact the Great Artesian Basin at all.

"In fact, we invested in tens of millions of dollars on a very comprehensive suite of environmental assessments and encapsulated within that was a hydro geological assessment," he said.
Small town waiting for the future to arrive

In towns like Alpha, which sits about 400 kilometres west of Rockhampton, population around 360, mining has been the future for years.

Local baker Chris Tilse has long been pondering the possible benefits of the region's abundant resource.

"I'm prepared to sit on the fence and watch what happens," he said.
"An important thing is now Australia needs jobs.

"The mines might provide a little part of the answer but they're not going to provide the answer."

Nola Halloran runs Alpha's Tourist Information Centre and spends her time trying to keep Alpha on the map.

But she said the future looked bleak without mining.

"Well we're dying without it, and as far as I can see it is the only industry that is going to save these little country towns," she said.

"There'll be so much employment - and employment for everything, it's not just mining but it's all the contractors and everything that go with it."

Meanwhile two doors up from the information centre the local hotel motel is half empty.

Alpha publican Kelly Naidoo was not sure he would still be around to see the coal dollars appear.

"I don't know, I'm at an age where I've got one leg in the grave and I mean I'll see," he said.

"But the resources here - there's coal here for 200 years."

source:http://www.abc.net.au