East End No.5 mine project
Project summary
Cement Australia (Exploration) Pty Ltd and Cement Australia (Queensland) Pty Ltd have made a joint mining lease application. Both companies are part of the Cement Australia Group.
The Cement Australia Group has applied under section 238 of the Environmental Protection Act 1994 (EP Act) to amend their existing environmental authority in relation to ML80156. It was decided that the East End No. 5 Project would be assessed by EIS.
The Cement Australia Group has identified significant resources within the proposed mining lease. The resource is located close to the existing mine infrastructure, which includes rail loops, railways, road access, rail loading plant and ancillary mine facilities.
Mining of the resource would involve an extension of the existing operations to the south-east across the common lease boundary. The same open cut mining methods currently employed on ML3631 would be used on the new lease.
As mining would be carried out below the water table, the workings would need to be dewatered. No mineral processing would be carried out on the proposed lease.
The existing mine currently produces approximately 2.5 million tonnes a year (Mt/y) of limestone and clay, and it is anticipated that this rate of mining would continue on the new lease. It was anticipated that mining would commence on the proposed mining lease in about five years, but this may change.
No additional infrastructure or ancillary facilities are required apart from access and haul road construction, fencing, a flood levee and establishing environmental controls.
At completion of mining, the remaining void would not be backfilled, leaving a water filled void which could be used as a water storage facility for local landholders.
Environmental Protection Act 1994 (Queensland)
The process for the assessment of this project is as follows:
- Submission of draft TOR
- Public notification of draft TOR
- Final TOR issued—EIS in preparation
- Public notification of EIS
- Proponent responds to submissions
- EIS assessment report
The EIS assessment report was issued to the Cement Australia Group on 27 October 2014, completing the EIS process under Chapter 3, Part 1 of the EP Act.
Before the project can proceed, the Cement Australia will need to obtain an amended environmental authority for the project under the EP Act.
Further information
Copies of currently available public documents can be obtained by accessing the links below:
Current documents
Superseded documents
- Terms of reference (see availability)
- Initial advice statement describing the project (see availability)
- Public notice (s46 EP Act) (see availability)
For further information about the EIS process for the East End No.5 Mine Project contact the EIS Co-ordinator.
The documents referred to on this page are available from the department’s online library catalogue.