Newlands’ 100 millionth tonne of coal was purchased by Tokyo Electric Power Company and is being transported to Japan by MV Corona Frontier.

The first export shipment of Newlands coal departed Abbot Point almost twenty years ago in March 1984. A consignment of 61,545 tonnes of Newlands thermal coal was loaded onto MV Ittersum, as part of a CIF shipment to Hong Kong Electric.

The vessel arrived at Abbot Point on 24 March 1984, departing four days later for Hong Kong. This was the second ever export shipment from Abbot Point, following the inaugural shipment of coking coal from the Collinsville operation to Japan.

“The initial export capacity of Newlands was 4.25 million tonnes per annum, which increased to approximately 8.5 million tonnes in 1999 with the opening of the Newlands underground mine,” said Newlands, Collinsville and Abbot Point general manager Lindsay Richardson.

“This means Newlands has exported, on average, around 5.1 million tonnes a year over more than a nineteen year period, which is an excellent achievement.”