UK-based mining giant Anglo American has announced that its new Aquila metallurgical coal mine, located near Middlemount in Australia, has been started up. The cost of the Aquila project was $226 million.
The mine will have a total average annual saleable production of around five million mt of premium quality hard coking coal and it features two longwalls, allowing operations to continue without the downtime that is usually required for longwall moves. Both longwalls are fully remote-capable and will be sequentially operated from a site-based remote operations centre on the surface of the mine.
The Aquila mine extends the life of the company’s existing Capcoal underground operations by seven years, after Anglo American’s Grasstree mine reached its end of life in recent weeks.