Expansion Overview
50% increase in terminal capacity by 2008, from 54.5 Mtpa to 80/85 Mtpa
Coal from Queensland's Bowen Basin continues to be one of the most sought after commodities in the world. Today, the demand for our premium coal is greater than it has ever been, creating opportunities for growth in all elements of the coal supply chain.
At DBCT, we are responding to this demand by expansion of the terminal to increase capacity by around 50% over the next 4 years.
Short Gain Expansion - is now complete. The work involved here was primarily the replacement of the RL1 Reclaimer which collapsed in early 2004. This brings the Terminal's capacity to 59 Mtpa and was largely completed in August 2006.
An additional 1 Mtpa will become available on completion of the departure path dredging which is being undertaken by PCQ.
Currently, the main expansion project is underway.
7X Project
Modifications and enhancements are proposed to all major terminal elements of inloading, stockyard and outloading.
The additional infrastructure to be installed comprises the following:
- a complete new third inloading system including rail loop, and dump station
- expansion of the Stockyard with 3 additional machinery bunds, 2 new stockpile rows and 4 additional stacking/reclaiming machines
- a complete third outloading string feeding the 3 existing berths
- an optional fourth berth; and
- additional controls to reduce the impact of noise and dust emissions.
The current terminal configuration, with the above expansion scope components shown, can be seen in our animated project plan.
Development Phases
A key objective of this project is to provide the earliest possible capacity increases to respond to the current high level of demand for coal exports. This will be achieved over 3 phases of work as shown.
As a result of the demand capacity for the Terminal exceeding 85 Mtpa, Phase 3 is no longer considered optional and subject to Regulatory Approval in conjunction with Phase 2, is planned to proceed. For this reason, Phase 3 will be incorporated as part of Phase 2 and will be referred to as Phase 2/3.