Saleable coal produced during the June 2003 quarter totalled 40.198Mt, up 4.15% compared to June 2002 quarter. Total saleable coal produced for the 2002-03 financial year was 153.601Mt, an increase of 3.53%.

Mines which contributed most to this increase were Bowen Central Opencut, South Walker Creek and North Goonyella in the Northern district, Blackwater, Blair Athol, Oaky Creek Opencut and Oaky Creek No. 1 Underground in the Central district and Commodore, Meandu, Moura and the New Hope group of mines in the Southern district.

For the June quarter Queensland’s longwall mines produced 6.507Mt, down 8.5% on 2002. Total underground production for the financial year was also down, to 26.750Mt, compared with 30.678Mt. Open-cut production grew during the quarter by around 3Mt totalling 33.580Mt (30.851Mt in 2002).

At the end of the June quarter the longwall sector employed 2,419 people, marginally up on last year. Open-cut mines employed 8,185. Overall, employment in Queensland’s coal sector grew by 2.26%.

Overall productivity for the June 2003 quarter fell by 4.98% from an average of 57.12 tonnes produced per employee per shift to 54.27t/shift, (based on 7 hour shifts). Productivity for underground mines dropped from an average 50.64t/shift in the June 2002 quarter to 36.90t/shift in 2003. Average overall output per employee for open-cut mines has remained about the same at 59.82t/shift.

Overall productivity for 2002-03 was 14,390t/ee, a decrease of 5.95%. In the underground sector, full year output per employee dropped to 11,082t/ee, compared with 13,087t/ee in 2002-03.

In 2002-03 countries that increased imports of coal from Queensland were Brazil, up 5.35% to 3.910Mt, China up 90.15% to 2.704Mt , India up 12.42% to 13.292Mt, Japan up 3.53% to 50.456Mt, Korea up 20.33% to 19.788Mt, Taiwan up 7.36% to 5.922Mt and United Kindgom with an increase of 8.51% to 5.674Mt.

Based on the Queensland Coal Report, published by The Department of Natural Resources and Mines.