Resourcehouse claims Australia’s biggest export deal

By Paula Wallace

Professor Palmer said Resourcehouse executive director Phil McNamara had successfully negotiated a 30 million tonne per annum, 20-year sales agreement with China Power International Development Limited, the flagship company of China Power Investment Corporation (CPI).
“This deal with CPI is Australia’s biggest ever export contract,” he said.
Professor Palmer also said he had awarded Queensland’s largest engineering, procurement and construction management contract (EPCM) for US$8.013 billion to Metallurgical Corporation of China Ltd (MCC).
“MCC will manage a syndicated group consisting of Sino Coal International Engineering Group, China Communications Construction Company (First Harbour) and China Railway Group Limited (CREC) to build Australia’s largest coal mine along with the required export infrastructure,” he said.
The US$8 billion China First Project has been developed by China First Pty Ltd, which is a fully owned subsidiary of Resourcehouse.
Professor Palmer later corrected the earlier media statement saying the contract was not with China Power International Development Ltd, as originally claimed, but with China Power International Holding Ltd.
However, after his announcements, CPI was reported as saying that the deal was not secured.
China Today reported that an official from CPI said the parties had signed an “agreement of intent” and they had not yet started price negotiations.
The CPI official, who did not want to be named, said the sum of $60 billion was an estimation by Resourcehouse, which was revealed by the Australian company probably for its own benefits.
McNamara said the contract with CPI was for approximately US$3 billion per annum over 20 years.
The project will include a large-scale thermal coal mine in the undeveloped Galilee Basin coal region near Alpha, west of Emerald. The complex will include four underground mines, two surface mines and associated coal handling and processing facilities.
The mine will be linked to a new coal terminal at Abbot Point near Bowen by a new 490 kilometre standard gauge, heavy haul railway line. The mine and associated infrastructure will create 6,000 jobs during construction and 1,500 during operation, according to Resourcehouse.
“This once in a century project will allow the Queensland Government and the Premier Anna Bligh to achieve the state’s employment targets,” said Palmer
He said the Export-Import Bank of China had confirmed it has agreed to lead the financing for US$5.6 billion for the project.
“This is Australia’s largest single non-syndicated finance deal and the interest from China highlights the strength of the project and the benefits for Queensland and Australia in developing a new world class coal region such as the Galilee Basin.”
The China First development has been granted Major Project Facilitation (MPF) status by Federal Infrastructure Minister Anthony Albanese and also declared “Significant Project” by the Queensland Government.
But the Mayor of the Barcaldine Regional Council Rob Chandler has been reported saying the Alpha region infrastructure is ill-equipped to cope with the plan and that there may also be “worrying social impacts”.
“It's a big lump of power they're going to need to drive the drag lines and drive the mining camps and the mining operations. But the town of Alpha will also need to have reliable power to sustain an increased population that's probably six fold.”
The power supply at the moment to the Alpha area is still supplied from SWER line from Barcaldine and it is unreliable, known to break down during storms and wet weather.
“So it's an unreliable power source at this stage and it will need to be upgraded,” Chandler told the ABC.
The China First project, costing $7 billion, would be constructed this year and become operational in 2013.

Zero-emission electricity studied to power the Galilee Basin
On February 10th, the University of Queensland announced that it is investigating the possibility of emission-free electricity from a plentiful underground energy source to power the China First development.
Research at UQ’s Queensland Geothermal Energy Centre of Excellence (QGECE) is directed towards a combination of clean coal and geothermal technologies which could produce zero-emission electricity for the future development of the Galilee Basin using coal-fired and geothermal power plants.
Centre Director Professor Hal Gurgenci said that mining required electrical power and to fuel future growth in Galilee Basin a new 1000-MW power station may be needed.
“Is it possible to power the development of the present and future mining prospects in the Galilee basin by zero-emission electricity? The research by The University of Queensland says ‘yes’”, Professor Gurgenci said.
“There are indications, which still need to be confirmed, that a significant geothermal heat source may exist in the Drummond Basin - the late Carboniferous granite structure underneath the Galilee Basin.”
The Centre is working with American and Japanese colleagues towards a new geothermal technology called ‘the supercritical CO2 thermosiphon’.
Professor Gurgenci believes the technology could provide an environmentally-friendly energy source for the Galilee Basin development.
“This is a new geothermal concept where, instead of water (which is traditionally used in conventional geothermal power plants), supercritical CO2 is sent down to extract the reservoir heat,” Professor Gurgenci said.
“The hot CO2 rises to the surface and drives a turbo-generator to produce electricity, and then is cooled and sent back underground to repeat the cycle.
“The favourable thermodynamic properties of CO2 make it possible for the two wells to operate as a self-sustaining heat pump that brings the subterranean heat to the surface and transforms it to electricity”.
Professor Gurgenci said that the QGECE was working to develop turbines, heat exchangers and other plant equipment for supercritical CO2 cycles at the power conversion laboratory at UQ’s School of Mechanical and Mining Engineering.
“The concept has the potential to increase the geothermal power conversion efficiencies by up to 50 percent,” Professor Gurgenci said.