Pembroke Resources has lodged its mining lease application and this week reached an agreement with traditional owners as it drives the $1 billion Olive Downs Coking Coal Project towards production.

Pembroke Resources chief executive officer and managing director Barry Tudor (below) said tenders were already out for early works for the project including haul roads, development of the rail loop and spur from the Norwich Park line, water pipeline extension, electricity provision, and construction of the coal washplant and related mine-site infrastructure.

“We’re spending a significant amount of money in areas we can so that when the mining lease is granted we can hit the ground running,” Mr Tudor said.

The project, near Moran, is fully funded and Mr Tudor expected to be well advanced in awarding tenders by the fourth quarter of the year.

Allowing about 12 months for the approvals process and a further year for construction, he expects to be in production at the Moranbah mining complex lease in the first half of 2020.

The complex is expected to begin its life with an output of about 4.5 Mtpa product coal (6Mtpa ROM) and will ramp up to 15Mtpa product coal (about 20Mtpa ROM).

Pembroke Resources expects construction to generate 500-700 jobs and the ongoing operation will employ about 1000 people at full capacity.

Mining will start in the Olive Downs South deposit and advance to Willunga.

The Indigenous Land Use Agreement was executed with the Barada Barna Aboriginal Corporation on Wednesday.