JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Diversified mining and marketing company Anglo American on Thursday announced board approval for the Aquila project to extend by six years the life of the Capcoal underground hard coking coal operations at the Grasstree mine in Queensland, Australia.

The life-of-mine will be advanced to 2028 at an expected attributable capital cost of $226-million.

Development work is scheduled to begin in September, with first longwall production of premium quality hard coking coal in early 2022.

In the view of Anglo bulk commodities CEO Seamus French, Aquila will provide a high-margin average annual saleable production of 3.5-million tonnes of attributable premium quality hard coking coal.

The real, post-tax internal rate of return is expected to be more than 30% and the earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation margin 40%.

“The project benefits from low capital intensity,” French said in a release to Creamer Media’s Mining Weekly Online. It benefits from being able to use existing infrastructure and systems from the adjacent Grasstree mine, as well as providing continuity of employment.

The complex includes the Capcoal opencast mine and the Grasstree underground mine, which are both managed by Anglo American, but with the underground 30% Mitsui owned.

In 2018, the Capcoal opencast mine produced two-million tonnes of metallurgical coal products and Grasstree underground produced 3.6-million tonnes of attributable hard coking coal. As at end December 2018, Capcoal opencast had a 20-year reserve life.