MACARTHUR Coal’s chief executive officer Nicole Hollows is standing by the company’s claims that it aims to double its presence in Central Queensland within five years despite the onset of the global financial crisis.
The company currently exports about 4.5 million tonnes of coal a year which will jump to nine million. It will be matched by Macarthur's workforce jumping from about 500 in total at the moment to more than 1000, including contractors.
Hollows says Middlemount is the first priority with construction slated to begin next month and production to take off in 2010. From there it will produce about a million tonnes a year until 2013 when it will ramp up to between three and four million tonnes.
The mining company will then look at choosing one of three potential projects, Codrilla, Wilunga or Vermont East, to push forward as their next project, completing the push to move from two mines to four in half a decade.
Middlemount mine would cost the company at least $150 million.
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