Gold Coast-headquartered Vitrinite Group, the operator of the Vulcan Mine in the Bowen basin, about 150 kilometres south-west of Mackay, has called in administrators to the group\u2019s six companies.<\/p>\n
According to the Vitrinite\u00a0website, the privately-owned company had been investing heavily \u201cin groundbreaking highwall mining technology and have mapped out a strategic growth plan for our next generation of assets, including the Callan Coking Coal, Karin Basin and Wilson Creek projects\u201d.<\/p>\n
It said production at the Vulcan mine had scaled from \u201ctwo to five million tonnes per annum\u201d since 2018.<\/p>\n
\u201cVitrinite is not just a part of the Australian coal industry; we are shaping its future,\u201d the website said.<\/p>\n
But in correspondence to creditors dated February 24, KordaMentha revealed that it had been appointed as receivers and managers.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are conducting an urgent assessment of the position of the company and the options available,\u201d the letter said.<\/p>\n
\u201c(We) will provide further details and information on the pathway forward as soon as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n
It comes as the sector continues to battle against lower prices and unforgiving royalty taxes.<\/p>\n
This month, mining giant BHP conceded it was facing \u201cacute challenges\u201d in Queensland because it was paying more in taxes and royalties than it was making in profits.<\/p>\n
It has mothballed its Saraji East mining project, also in the Bowen Basin, and cut hundreds of jobs.<\/p>\n
Queensland\u2019s coal royalty regime has been cited as the reason for a series of shutdowns.<\/p>\n
Under the scheme, miners pay a 20 per cent royalty for prices above $175 a tonne, 30 per cent for prices above $225 a tonne, and 40 per cent for prices above $300 a tonne.<\/p>\n
Royalty rates in other jurisdictions are typically in the single digits; in NSW, coal producers can be charged as little as 8.8 per cent, depending on the type of mine.<\/p>\n
A spokesperson Natural Resources and Mines Minister Dale Last said: \u201cOur thoughts are with the workers and their families following the decision of privately-owned Vitrinite Group.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cQueensland is open for business with an unchanged, stable royalty regime \u2013 exactly as we promised \u2013 and we are banging down doors across the country and the globe to secure new investment after a decade of uncertainty under Labor that drove investment off a cliff.\u201d<\/p>\n
Vitrinite was contacted for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gold Coast-headquartered Vitrinite Group, the operator of the Vulcan Mine in the Bowen basin, about 150 kilometres south-west…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":504362,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[64,63,75,128],"class_list":["post-504361","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-environment","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/504361","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=504361"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/504361\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/504362"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=504361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=504361"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=504361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}