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The project came into focus this week when Hancock Coal general manager Paul Mulder presented at the inaugural Galilee Basin Coal and Energy Investment Conference in Brisbane.
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Mulder reportedly said the company was 鈥渘ot adverse鈥� to sharing the rail and port infrastructure of the project, suggesting it could be open to talks with fellow giant Clive Palmer and his China First project.
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Palmer said earlier in the week he would consider sharing port and railway lines with Hancock.
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Whether infrastructure sharing comes to fruition or not, both companies have based their business models on building their own infrastructure to be supported by large tonnages from their own operations.
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Hancock is moving ahead with two bankable feasibility studies for its 30 million tonne per annum Alpha project and the 30Mtpa Kevin鈥檚 Corner project. Together, they will make one of the largest coal mining operations in the world.
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The projects have a 4 billion tonne JORC-compliant resource and the company is targeting a 6.1Bt resource by the end of this year.
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Both mines have a life of more than 40 years. Alpha will use open cut methods with draglines and truck and shovel, while Kevin鈥檚 Corner will use both open cut and underground mining using longwalls, draglines and truck and shovel.
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Alpha, expected to rank as one of the largest open cut thermal coal mines in the world, will be under construction during 2011-13 with ramp-up from 2014 to 2017.
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Kevin鈥檚 Corner is looking at a similar timeline with construction during 2011-14 and ramp-up from 2014 to 2019.
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What the two projects have is economies of scale. The mines will share infrastructure across power, water, accommodation and air strip. They will also share the cost of the rail and port developments, which is estimated at $A6 billion.
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In his presentation, Mulder said the 495km of rail to Abbot Point would service 25,000t trains and would be a semi-automated system.
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Hancock is using Thiess as its study manager and the consulting services of Runge, Sedgman, Salva Resources, GHD, Calibre Engenium, SKM, McCollum Environmental, Connell Hatch, MineOp Consulting and AARC.
