Queensland-based operator Aurizon has announced its first coal haulage contract in the Southern Coalfields of NSW, with plans to rail 800,000 tonnes per annum for Wollongong Coal’s Wongawilli Colliery to Port Kembla Coal Terminal.
The contract, announced on August 15, provides haulage services from August 2016 to August 2018.
Aurizon says it will utilise existing locomotives and wagons to service the contract.
Wollongong Coal is majority-owned by Indian conglomerate Jindal Steel and Power, which also owns the Russell Vale Colliery.
Aurizon executive vice president for Customer & Strategy Mauro Neves said the company – which has steadily increased its market share in NSW in recent years – is “delighted” to start operations on the contact, “and to extend our footprint for coal haulage in NSW beyond the Hunter Valley and the Gunnedah Basin”.
“We’ve worked closely with Wollongong Coal to provide a flexible and innovative service offering, and in leveraging our capability as Australia’s largest coal haulage provider,” Neves said.
Wollongong Coal boss Milind K Oza said: “[The] company is delighted to engage Aurizon for hauling coal from its Wongawilli Colliery.
“It is another mile stone achieved following engagement of Delta SBD (ASX Code: DBS) to mine and operate Wongawilli Colliery for an initial period of 2 year to extract around 1.45 million tonnes of ROM coal.”