Australia suffers big losses in coal industry due to floods
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The Queensland government will be missing out on coal royalties of up to 2.9 million AU dollars (2.89 million U.S. dollars) a day for the rest of the financial year, according to new industry analysis released on Thursday.
The Queensland Resources Council's State of the Sector report predicts coal production in the March 2011 quarter will drop by between 25 percent and 50 percent because of the state's floods.
This was measured against a benchmark of 51 million tonnes of quarterly production.
The report put the cost of the lost production to the state's coffers at between 1.6 million AU dollars (1.59 million U.S. dollars) and 2.9 million AU dollars (2.89 million U.S. dollars) a day -- and forecasts a 4.5 billion AU dollars (4.48 billion U.S. dollars) to 8 billion AU dollars (7.97 billion U.S. dollars) blow to Queensland's gross state product in 2010/11.
"Queensland's gross state product grew by 5.6 billion AU dollars (5.58 billion U.S. dollars) between 2008/09 and 2009/10, meaning that even at the lower end of the scale, the impact of the floods could see almost a whole year's worth of Queensland's economic growth lost," said Queensland Resources Council chief Michael Roche.
The body is pleased with the speed that damaged coal rail lines have been repaired, but wants coal pits full of water to be pumped out as a priority.
It says 85 percent of mines have issues with floodwaters, but are constrained by Department of Environment and Resource Management rules on releasing the water.
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