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Category: States and Territories / Oil and Gas / Mining Industry / Mining (Rural) / Coal

New Leigh Creek power station announced

Tuesday, 12 Apr 2016 08:47:09

Leigh Creek Energy Limited and the Shanghai Electric Power Generation Group announce a joint venture company to build, own and operate a power station in the South Australian outback town.

Alinta Energy's open-cut coal mine at Leigh Creek closed in November putting about 250 people out of work.

The mine had been operating for more than half a century.

Leigh Creek Energy chief executive Phil Staveley said it was hoped a demonstration plant would be built this year, with commercial production in 2019.

He said it would use "in-situ gasification".

"That means gasifying the coal at the Leigh Creek site," he said.

"It's uneconomic to recover by normal mining methods so rather than dragging it up to the surface and gasifying it we actually gasify it underground."

Mr Staveley said a feasibility study would determine what capacity the power station would have — but it was expected to be between a 300- and 600-megawatt capacity.

Port Augusta's soon-to-be-closed Northern Power Station has about a 550-megawatt capacity.

He said the new station should provide a boost to the region's economic prospects.

"There are other opportunities, other existing mines that might want to expand or mines that haven't been developed but would like to be developed but they can't ... because they don't have a secure supply of energy," he said.

AustraliaPlus


 

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