Saturday, 22 Jan 2011
Reuters reported that miners Rio Tinto and Aquila Resources have resumed some operations in Australia's flood ravaged Queensland state as waters receded and the region's vital mining and metals sector slowly returned to work.
Rio Tinto terminated force majeure at its Boyne Island aluminium smelter as it could resume transportation while Aquila restarted production at its Isaac Plains coal mine, a joint venture with Brazil's Vale.
But Queensland's coal industry, which suffered losses of over USD 2 billion according to some estimates, is still far from normal and Aquila warned it would still take some time to resume full operations while Cockatoo Coal said mining at its Baralaba operations would not start before February 2011.
Aquila said that "Whilst all equipment is in working order, resumption of full production rates will take some time while dewatering of the site is completed. Force Majeure remains in place on a number of sales contracts."
Australia accounts for around two-thirds of the world's coking coal exports and Queensland share is around 90 percent of that figures.
Gladstone Port, Queensland's second largest coal export port, earlier this week said it would take until the end of March 2011 for exports to return to normal while mining services companies said it could take three to six months to pump out all the water in mining pits.
(Sourced from www.reuters.com)
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