Draining flooded Australia mines could take weeks

Daniel  Munoz - 

Australia's flood-stricken coal industry was facing lengthy disruptions on Thursday, with one miner saying it could take weeks to drain its pits of water and the biggest coking coal port warning there was a risk its stocks could run out.

Floods swamped coking coal mines in Queensland state in December, paralysing operations that produce 35 percent of Australia's estimated 259 million tonnes of exportable coal. Australia accounts for two-thirds of global coking coal exports, which are needed to make steel.

About 200,000 people scattered across an area the size of France and Germany combined have been affected by the flooding in Queensland. Damage from the floods, the worst in the state in 50 years, has been estimated at $5 billion (£3.2 billion).

London-listed Anglo American, one of the nation's top four miners of steel-making coal, said it was preparing to pump water out of its flooded mines but that it was too early to say when its collieries could resume operation.

"Our focus is currently on mobilising our people and other resources and de-watering flooded coal pits, which we estimate will take some weeks," Seamus French, head of the group's metallurgical coal division, said in a statement.

Anglo has about seven coal mines in Queensland, which accounts for most of Australia's coking-coal exports.

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Photo Reuters - Daniel Munoz

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