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The Premier Coal mining company is
the largest coal producer in WA and is part of Wesfarmers
Limited, a diversified corporation with annual revenue
exceeding $7 billion. As a member of the Wesfarmers
Energy division, Premier Coal is part of an energy portfolio
which includes coal, gas and power generation. Premier
Coal has been operating in the Collie Basin since 1950
and has reserves sufficient for the next 100 years. |
Premier Coal’s parent Company is Wesfarmers Limited;
a major diversified Australian public company headquartered
in Perth, Western Australia. Wesfarmers started in 1914 as
a Western Australian farmer's co-operative focussed on the
provision of services and merchandise to the rural community.
The Company has built on its rural links and diversified over
time, greatly broadening its business and geographical base
to include the industrial and resource sectors.
Since public listing in 1984, Wesfarmers has recorded strong
growth in assets and profits based on strength through diversity.
2002/2003
Operating revenue $7.8 billion
After-tax profit $538 million
Today, the group has interests in coal mining (Premier Coal,
Curragh and Bengalla Mines); gas processing and distribution
(Kleenheat, AirLiquide); power generation (Statewest Power);
retailing of home and garden hardware and improvements (Bunnings);
fertilisers and chemicals manufacture (CSBP); industrial and
safety product distribution, rail transport; and forest products.
Wesfarmers employs about 20,000 people full-time, and a further
10,000 on a casual basis, across Australia and New Zealand.
Wesfarmers has 90,000 shareholdings on its register comprising
farmers, institutions, employees (about 14,000) and other
investors.
Wesfarmers Premier Coal is part of the Energy Division of
Wesfarmers Limited. The Energy Division is based in the Perth
suburb of Myaree, Western Australia. The Division has a wide
range of energy interests including coal mining, gas processing
and distribution and power generation. Most of these are based
in Australia but the Division has gas interests in Bangladesh
and exports coal to a number of places including Japan, India
and Europe.
Starting as a private consortium in 1947, and becoming a
public company, Western Collieries, in 1950, Premier Coal
became part of Wesfarmers Limited in 1989.
With reserves to operate for the next 100 years, and a new
mine and infrastructure fully commissioned in 1997, Premier
Coal is well placed to continue its major contribution of
times past by powering the future of Western Australia. The
Premier Mine itself is planned out to the year 2027.
Currently, the Premier Mine produces 3.3 million tonnes per
year of high-quality coal with 280 employees, and is planning
an expansion to 5 million tonnes per annum by 2007. The mine
is new with modern facilities, equipment and workshops.
Production productivity has nearly doubled in the Premier
Mine due to the introduction of large electric shovels and
240-tonne capacity haul trucks. This fleet can move at least
32 million bank cubic metres of overburden per year.
A large-scale operation allows Premier Coal to produce the
cheapest power station fuel in Western Australia in a reliable
and sustainable fashion, employing world’s best environmental
practices during both mining and rehabilitation operations.
Premier Coal provides a large economic contribution to the
State and Community through wages, donations, taxes, royalties,
goods and services bought from numerous suppliers, and dividends
via revenue to Wesfarmers.
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