Coal Land Transport Options Economics in Eastern Australia E. Lawrie 2 , M.G. Rasul 1 and T. Gilroy 2 1 College of Engineering and the Built Environment Faculty of Sciences, Engineering and Health Central Queensland University Rockhampton, Qld 4702 Australia 2 Parsons Brinckerhoff (PB), Australia ABSTRACT This paper examines the economics of three transport options, namely road, rail and conveyor, currently used to transport coal in Australia and compares their effectiveness to meet the capital, operating and life-cycle costs, energy usage and sustainability requirements for ongoing use by the coal mining industry. This study has identified the transport distances where economic advantage changes from one transport mode to the other expanding the current industry knowledgebase and also providing a primary selection tool to enable selection of the optimal transport option for a given transport task. At today’s market prices the road transport option proved the most economical up to 3km transport distance. Between 3km and 30km the conveyor transport option proved to be the most economical. For transport distances greater than 30 km the rail option takes over as the most economical transport mode. This study has provided a starting point from which further detailed and task specific assessment of transport considerations will allow an informed transport option selection decision to be finalised with relation to defined operational and market situations. 1 INTRODUCTION The Australian mining industry as a whole accounts for around 5% of Australian GDP [1]. Since 1984 the world’s biggest coal exporter has been Australia, exporting to 35 countries around the world. Australian black coal discovered reserves total 76 billion tonnes which, at current rates of production, will last for over 200 years [2]. The International Energy Agency [3] expects a 43% world increase in the use of coal from year 2000 to 2020 with some 23% of primary energy needs being met by coal and 38% of electricity being generated from coal. In early 2005 there were approximately 100 operating Australian coal mines, with that number currently increasing driven by current relatively strong export coal prices [4]. The transport of coal makes up a major portion of the supply cost of coal. Transportation of coal to export facilities and end users in an efficient, economically viable and sustainable method is one of the current major issues for new and existing coal mine producers. Additionally there is a trend in industry to continually seek opportunities for larger size washplants which create certain advantages. Multiple coal sources feeding a larger central washplants allows (i) economy of scale upgrades, especially for large capital components including stacking, reclaiming, train loading and fines recovery systems (ii) blending to provide higher quality and therefore more saleable coal. Investment in larger central washplants can also provide protection against short term trends in the production ratio of thermal/coking/PCI coals. Currently, rail is used to transport coal from coal producers to export ports or large scale end users such as power stations, especially where the transport distance exceeds 30km. In 2004/05 QR National transported around 157 million tonnes of coal which included 146 million tonnes for export and 11 million tonnes for domestic use [5]. This was an increase of 8.5% from the previous year. Coal is railed from 32 coal mines to six major ports using QR National’s 2000km of track, of which, three quarters is electrified. QR trains carry up to 8600 tonnes of coal each with quick turnaround times from the relatively short haulage distances providing high tonnage capability. This capability is however being stretched [6] as new mines come online and mine upgrades are realised [6]. Major track duplication works are currently underway in Queensland along with structured wagon and locomotive purchasing to meet this demand. Major upgrades of train unloading and ship loading facilities at the ports are being undertaken in parallel to meet the increased demand.