Capital investment for the project is expected to total approximately $90m, which includes approximately $20m targeted for 2010. Expanded production from Wilpinjong will serve export markets using new port capacity from the recently commissioned Newcastle Coal Infrastructure Group (NCIG) terminal.
Late-stage licensing and mine engineering activities are advancing, and the project is subject to final permitting and regulatory approval.
Gregory Boyce, chairman and CEO of Peabody Energy, said: “The Wilpinjong expansion is among a number of organic growth initiatives to build our global platform for serving the fastest-growing economies and coal markets in the world.
“Asian nations are forecast to account for more than 90 percent of global coal demand growth in the next two decades, and Australia will continue to build its position as the chief supplier of seaborne coal.”
The expansion is among multiple thermal and metallurgical coal projects that could expand Peabody’s annual Australian volumes to up to 35 to 40 million tons by 2014. Peabody is targeting an increase in seaborne metallurgical coal shipments to 12 to 15 million tons per year by 2014, and increasing thermal coal exports to 15 to 17 million tons per year.
Earlier this year, Peabody also approved a 1 million ton-per-year expansion of the Metropolitan metallurgical mine, also in New South Wales.
