Galilee Basin: "Underground coal bounty powers new era"  

The Australian has an article boosting the extraction of coal from Queensland's Gaililee Basin, noting the 3 proposed mines in the region "could be exporting 100 million tonnes of coal within four years - more than the entire amount exported from the Hunter Valley in NSW" and that there are other operators like Linc Energy active in the area - Underground coal bounty powers new era

The two main proponents in the Galilee Basin hail from the Bjelke-Petersen era: one of Sir Joh's closest confidants, Lang Hancock, first found coal in the area in the 1970s, and now his daughter, Gina Rinehart, is preparing an environmental impact statement for two new mines there.

Sir Joh's former spokesman, Clive Palmer, now Australia's fifth-richest man, is the other major player, with an $8bn proposal that includes not only a new coalmine but also the power station and associated infrastructure to get the coal to port.

This is very much a sunrise enterprise and, if it comes off, the Galilee Basin will join the $43bn Gorgon liquefied natural gas project off Western Australia and Queensland's emerging coal-seam gas industry in powering the nation into a new era of prosperity, hooked into the economic juggernauts of China and India.