In Queensland a Wagyû cattle breeding farm is to be sold to Xstrata. The Swiss mining giant is buying the 17,474 hectare pastoral farm from the Australian Agricultural Company. The deal has been struck for $21.6 million and the farm is to be sold minus the cattle and machinery.
The Meteor Downs Station is located near Emerald in central Queensland and is considered as a non-core property by the Australian Agricultural Company. It was used for breeding cattle and making genetic improvements. Now the existing operations at the cattle farm will be shifted to other properties owned by Australian Agricultural.
The chief executive of the Australian Agricultural, David Farley said that Xstrata wanted to buy the 60,000 acre property which already had three mines on it. Two of them were operated by Xstrata and eventually the Meteor Downs farm will be consumed by the Rolleston Coal Mine.
Mr Farley said that once the mine gets to a certain size, they would lose the economic viability to operate the property because of the exclusion zones around the mine. He added that Australia must really address its sustainable farming base and what is required of it as opposed to what is the ability to harvest energy from that land.
The expansion of the Rolleston Coal Project is planned to consist of between five and 10 open-cut pits that are either extensions to the existing Rolleston Coal operation or adjacent to the existing Rolleston Coal operation. Xstrata hopes to begin mining at the expanded mine by 2015.