Myth

The Carmichael Mine is located next to the Great Barrier Reef and will damage coral and marine wildlife.

Fact

The Mine is about 300km from our coal export terminal at Abbot Point in North Queensland, and the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park is 50km from Abbot Point. The mine is therefore approximately 350km away from the reef, which is the same distance from London to Paris via train.

Myth

Ships travelling through the Great Barrier Reef damage the reef and marine life.

Fact

All ships transporting coal from the Carmichael Mine will transit through the existing channels within the Great Barrier Reef. These are approved shipping zones, and are governed by the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA).  AMSA and Maritime Safety Queensland monitor commercial vessels in the Great Barrier Reef and Torres
Strait using the 24/7 vessel tracking system known as Great Barrier Reef and Torres Strait Vessel Traffic Service, better known as Reef VTS.

Reef VTS requires all vessels (including those on overseas, interstate or intrastate voyages) to identify themselves and their intended passage through the Great Barrier Reef and Torres Strait region. The ships are continuously tracked using radar, satellite and other maritime sensors while the staff at Reef VTS control centres in Townsville and Gladstone are on hand to provide navigation advice and a quick response to any safety or pollution incident. 

Reef VTS has a proven track record of mitigating the risk of ship groundings, with just one ship grounding occurring since the system came into operation in 2004.

Myth

The ships that will travel through the Great Barrier Reef will drop coal and damage the reef, marine life and the coral.

Fact

The Abbot Point export terminal is located 53km from the closest point of the Great Barrier Reef. Each berth at the Terminal has a ship loader with dust control features, to safely and securely load the coal into the cargo hold. Once the coal is loaded into the ship, the cargo hold is securely sealed.

Myth

The Great Barrier Reef has been dredged for the Carmichael Mine.

Fact

Dredging is not required for the Carmichael Project. Abbot Point is a naturally-occurring deep water port that is managed by the North Queensland Bulk Ports Corporation. As per the above ships that transport coal from the project will use the existing shipping lanes that follow large naturally-occurring channels through the reef.

Myth

The Carmichael Mine is a 'super mine' or 'mega mine' which will produce more coal than all other Australian mines.

Fact

Bravus’ Carmichael Mine is one of 125 operating coal mines in Australia and currently has approval from our board to mine 10 million tonnes of coal per annum. This is a similar production volume to operating coal mines in the Hunter Valley and Bowen Basin.