Blair Athol Mine

Blair Athol Mine, located in the Bowen Basin in Central Queensland, 25 km north-west of the township of Clermont, supplies customers in Asia and Europe with up to 12 million tonnes of coal per annum.

Blair Athol Mine takes its name from the historic grazing property, Blair Athol Station, named by pastoralist James McLaren, in honour of his Scottish birthplace. Coal was originally discovered on the site in 1864, however it was a century later that the true worth of the resource was realised, with the first commercial shipments of coal despatched in May 1984.

Blair Athol Mine is due to close in 2015 when its reserves are completely mined out. Its stockpile and train facilities will be used by the Clermont Mine, currently under construction.

Rio Tinto Coal Australia manages the operation on behalf of the joint venture partners - Rio Tinto (57.2 per cent), Leichhardt Coal Pty Ltd, owned by UniSuper, Rio Tinto and J-Power (31.4 per cent), and Japanese power utilities EPDC Australia Pty Ltd (8 per cent) and JCD Australia Pty Ltd (3.4 per cent).