QUEENSLAND COAL AND ITS FUTURE.

Three major projects are now in progress in the Bowen Basin. The Norwich Park Mine will start production in late 1979 with an annual output of 4. 3 m. t. a. The BHP Gregory Mine will produce at the rate of 3 m. t. a. from 1980. Thiess Bros are expanding output at their South Blackwater opencut mine by 1980. Market conditions permitting, coal exports based on Gladstone will grow substantially in the next five years. Further north the major stumbling block will continue to be port capacity.