In a world over-powered by opinionated ignorance and blemished by virtue signalling, the issue of coal stands out as a beacon of frustration and absurdity.
If you want to get a good taste of it, tune in to an ABC news or current affairs program and listen to the discussion about the demise of coal.
Opinions are strong, dogmatic and uncompromising. Unfortunately, they also misrepresent the facts and fail to give a true picture of what is happening.
Listen to the discussion and you will learn that coal is finished, that the jobs are about to disappear and that communities like Mackay are doomed.
The problem is that in the world of the commentariat, no one seems to know the difference between thermal coal and metallurgical coal.
Thermal coal is used to fire up power plants and, yes, there is a big push in Australia and elsewhere in the Western world to put a stop to it.
However, something like 80 per cent of the coal produced in our region, the Bowen Basin, is metallurgical (or coking) coal, which is used to produce steel.
And that is going to be the case for a long time, which is good for businesses and, by extension, real estate, in our city.
We are certainly diversifying in what we do in this region but our steel-making coal is in big demand and that’s not expected to change any time soon.
I quote from BMA’s most-recent annual report: “We are continuing to focus our metallurgical coal operations in Queensland on higher-quality product and have one of the lowest GHG emission production intensities of benchmarked export metallurgical coal mines.
“We believe a wholesale shift away from blast furnace steel making , which uses metallurgical coal, is still decades in the future and as a result metallurgical coal will remain an essential input into the steel-making process and a critical input to support decarbonisation infrastructure over the coming decades.
“We believe higher-quality coals for steelmaking have greater potential upside for quality premiums as steelmakers seek to improve blast furnace utilisation and reduce GHG emission intensity of production.”
Our region is diversifying and looking to be part of the renewable energy push by using our engineering and manufacturing expertise. It’s what we need to do to grow and evolve.
But our governments and leaders and media need to get better at explaining that we produce and export primarily steel-making coal and that stuff is different to the evil thermal stuff that the commentariat is so obsessed with.
The future of our economy and, by extension, our real estate sector, looks good but it’s time we started shouting that from the rooftops. Because it’s true and a dose of the truth would be a good thing.
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