The coal mine its owners said royalties had killed is open again with 275 workers, and the Premier says it got no royalty deal

A Bowen Basin coal mine that went silent when its owner collapsed is back in business, and the man who reopened it says the state did not bend its rules to make it happen.

Premier David Crisafulli officially reopened the New Burton mine, about 120 kilometres south-west of Mackay near Moranbah, on Thursday. Its new owner, Argo, says 275 people now work there.

Why did it close?

The mine’s previous owner, Bowen Coking Coal, went into receivership in 2025, and its former owners said Queensland’s coal royalties had made the operation unprofitable. Argo bought the Burton complex from the company’s administrators at the end of June.

Asked why the old owners could not make it pay, Argo chief executive Richard Livingstone-Blevins declined to say. He said the company had invested “based on the current royalty regime that’s in place”.

Did the government help?

Mr Crisafulli said the state offered no financial incentive and no deferral of royalties. “They’re being paid in full,” he said, adding that people “need to know that the future of mining in Queensland is secure”.

That matters because royalties have become the industry’s main argument with the state. Queensland’s progressive coal royalty, introduced in 2022, takes a higher share as prices rise, and coal companies have blamed it for mine closures and lost investment. A mine restarting under the same rules undercuts part of that argument, though it does not settle it: Argo has not said what coal price its plan assumes.

Who is Argo?

Argo is building a portfolio fast. In March it bought a 70 per cent stake in three other Bowen Basin mines, Broadlea, Carborough Downs and Ironbark, for an undisclosed price. Burton makes four.

Mr Livingstone-Blevins said the group plans to produce 10 million tonnes of saleable coal a year by 2028, and claims a resource base of more than 4 billion tonnes, two coal preparation plants, two rail loops, its own haul road and a workers’ camp. At Burton alone, the target is 2.5 to 3 million tonnes of product coal a year, with steady production expected in the first quarter of 2027.

What does it mean for the region?

For Moranbah and the Isaac region, 275 jobs makes Burton a major local employer, and the restart brings contract work with it: drilling and blasting at the mine has already been awarded to an outside contractor.

The wider picture is less certain. Coal prices are well below their 2022 peaks, when the new royalty tiers were set. Whether Burton lasts will depend on prices as much as on royalties.