By Daniel Munoz

For 59 year-old Wal Krikowa his hobby has become his passion. The recent volatility affecting gold prices is the least of his concerns. After decades of doing what he calls “the business”, his passion for prospecting gold on weekends has remained unchanged. His experience tells him it all just comes down to luck. Worrying about whether he finds anything is just a waste of time.

Wal and his wife Liz always start their gold prospecting trips with a strict routine. I arrived at their beautiful house in North Canberra on a recent Saturday morning. We hit the road and a short time later we stopped at a local petrol station for what I first thought was a morning cup of coffee. But there was an different motive to this visit. Liz is hugely superstitious, and the stop was part of their ‘luck routine’ before prospecting. She admitted to me between sips of the local brew that another one of her superstitions is to place four soda cans into the same bag, the same way, at the same time before leaving the house. “Everything needs to be perfectly in place to find gold,” she said with a wry grin.

As a football fan, superstition is no stranger to me. I know of coaches who wear the same tie or smoke the same amount of tobacco before every match just to re-enact the same procedures of their previous victory.

After traveling for over an hour we arrived at the Shoalhaven River, located in what’s known as the Southern Highlands region of New South Wales. Wal immediately began to set up a device he called a ‘highbanker’. He designed it himself to filter river rocks and pebbles with a sole purpose – to accelerate the process of finding gold.

Meanwhile, Liz conducted what she calls ‘panning tests’, looking for small iron stones and black sand associated with gold. She conducted the tests by putting dirt around the stones in her pan, washing away the bigger pieces and keeping the smaller and heavier ones in the bottom. The ideal outcome is that after washing away all the remaining black sand, what will remain in the pan will be beautiful, golden flakes. It’s a clever and simple process, knowing that gold is the heaviest of all the elements found in the dirt. If between 15 and 20 tiny flakes of gold are found, then its time for the “highbanker”.

The “highbanker” objective is simple: wash a massive amount of dirt and put the heavy and small stuff into a rug trap. To do that, it needs to have the appropriate angle, the appropriate amount of water and the appropriate grids.

The gold is inevitably trapped, the rug is washed and all its content is patiently panned. Liz is the best at this process, not a single small flake escapes her.

Like the couple, hundreds of Australians can be found spending their weekends panning for gold in many rivers and small towns across the country. With such a beautiful, clean environment of fresh country air and crystal clear waters, I certainly think it’s a nice way of relaxing, with the added bonus that at the end of it, lies the potential for some extra cash.

But this is not necessarily the end of the story. Wal and Liz don’t just hunt for gold in the river. They also search for other precious stones of the region including sapphires, opals and precious gems. But that’s an entirely different operation and one they are saving for a ‘rainy day’.

By Daniel Munoz

I knew before it started, that trying to avoid the colorful powder would only make it worse. So, I decided to go all the way and get in close – deep and merciless.

As the clock struck 9 last Sunday morning, the official start of this fun run, I grabbed my two camera bodies and stepped into what was known as the ‘blue zone’. The first runners came towards me, and the fun began.

People from all ages ran around Sydney’s Olympic Park, with only one intention: get as much color powder thrown at them as they could, and of course, being a professional photographer, my mission was to be as close to the action as possible.

After just a very short time, I was covered in so much blue powder, that someone commented that I looked like one of the cartoon characters known as a Smurf. I decided to move on and try the next area known as the yellow zone. This turned out to be a big mistake, as I had forgotten my Kindergarten color lessons, and now I ended up looking like the Incredible Hulk.

After taking a lot of pictures there, I moved on to the finish line of this 5 kilometers (3 miles) run. Here, the first revelers were beginning to cross the finish line, and awaiting them was a mass synchronized color throwing frenzy. It provided the best pictures and, of course, I got covered in even more colored powder.

Despite having to blow on my lenses hundreds of times to remove the colored dust, it was an extremely fun event to cover.

Sydney people are known as being very fit and healthy, and this colorful spectacle proved this once again. It made me think though that I myself need to work on being healthier, but when it comes to sharing with these Sydneysiders a sense of fun, I am definitely right there with them.

I remembered a few days earlier I was reading a blog about Reuters photographer Shannon Stapleton going towards the biggest crime scene of recent times; Ground Zero in New York. A silly smile filled my face as, of course, my scene was a grain of sand in the desert compared to what Shannon faced on 9/11.

The breaking news was that a man had locked himself inside a lawyer’s office with his daughter and with what appeared to be a bomb strapped to himself, in west Sydney. After parking only 3 blocks away, I picked up a Canon Mark IV with a 500mm lens as my main camera, my second set up as spare with a 70-200mm, two bags with wide lenses, flash, extra batteries and my laptop to file from the scene and then: I ran.

Arriving at the scene my first concern was that the main subject was behind a window. Usually when stories are related to windows it involves a long wait. Almost every photographer can certify that. From sportsmen to celebrities, politicians or criminals, if the media is pointing to a window, 90% of the times the story heads for a long wait.

Soon after pointing my 500mm lens at the window, the face of the subject appeared for a few seconds and I took ten pictures. In coordination with the Reuters pictures desk in Singapore my first frame hit the Reuters wire within 3 minutes.

What followed was sporadic appearances of the man at the window that he had smashed, officers walking the street, heavily armed men and negotiators going in and out of the building and the sun slowly going down, forcing us to change our camera settings for more waiting in the dark.

Early in the evening, a few cameramen and local photographers started to leave. Two more hours and most of the media had left as the chances to get a decent frame were one in a million. It was dark, we were more than 150 meters (yards) away, nothing seemed to be happening, the blackout curtains were closed and we were certain that if something happened the pictures would be blocked by some police or fire truck as Australia has strong protective laws for victims and alleged criminals.

I agreed with every single reason of each of my colleagues who left the scene but I decided to stay. Sadly, ‘bomb’ and ‘hostage’ are words that I am quite familiar with.

Suddenly, the blackout curtains went up. Some police entered the building with tools that made clear they would break into the room. A few minutes later a dramatic scene of a girl crying and screaming as she was taken into safety by the police happened right in front of me. Five minutes later her father was escorted out too. It was clear that the girl and her father were unhurt, a positive outcome from a dangerous situation without anything blocking the pictures; odd.

As I waited, I remembered how a few colleagues and some fellow photographers had waited for more than four months outside the residence of the Japanese ambassador in Lima, Peru, back in 1997 when I was just starting out. Their experience was a huge lesson for me.

So, after all, 11 hours wait was another grain of sand in the desert.

After a more than 6 hour flight from Sydney, from one corner of Australia to the other, I touched down into a landscape exactly as I had imagined. The land was littered with red iron ore rocks, clear blue skies stretched with an immensity you only feel at sea, and trains, huge trains, hauled iron ore from the mines to be loaded onto ships bound for China.

This remote region called the Pilbara is at the center of Australia’s mining boom. But with more than AUD$400 billion in new resource projects on the drawing board, miners are struggling to find people who want to live and work in this harsh environment, despite offering wages in the six figures for truck drivers and construction workers – more than Australian doctors and lawyers earn.

But the high wages mean sky-high rents in outback towns in the Pilbara region – something we quickly discovered when we drove into the Aboriginal “dry town” of Roebourne, where alcohol has been banned due to high rates of domestic violence. After hours of driving, we found a bed in Roebourne in a dirty hotel room for $230 a night, with a can of insecticide in case of a midnight attack by some weird Aussie pest.

In outback towns which before the mining boom struggled to exist, we met workers from around the world — French, South Africans, Germans, Koreans, New Zealanders, and of course lots of Australians. All of them came to the outback with different dreams, but the same objective: earn the money to make those dreams come true.

Wages may be very good, gardeners earn AUD$30 an hour, cleaners $25 to $30 an hour and semi-skilled workers around $100,000 a year, but it’s not easy money and the living is definitely not easy.

With little accommodation, groups of 10 to 15 people live in 3 bedroom houses for $2,000 a week rent. Thousands live in mine camps where shipping containers have been converted into rooms with tiny bathrooms. While others live for months in caravans or in the backyard of their workplaces.

High rents and a lack of accommodation means lots of mine workers operate on a fly-in, fly-out scheme with companies paying for monthly flights between the mines and Perth, the closest city at more than 1,500 kilometers south (932 miles). With an international airport located within 2 hours drive at Port Hedland, some workers fly to the Indonesian resort island of Bali for the weekend. Some even fly to Ireland to spend a fortnight with their loved ones after 12 weeks of non-stop work.

Life in the mine camps can be “soul-destroying” said a woman who works on a gas plant and asked not to be identified. “Your room is your solitary space. You get lonely, a sense of being separated from loved ones and family,” she said.

We met her as she and a friend enjoyed “the staircase to the moon”, a spectacular natural phenomenon when the full moon reflects on the low tide in the Burrup Peninsula – just one of the natural rewards for enduring the harsh outback life.

But time for relaxation is brief. Waking up in a mine camp means your workplace is at your doorstep — handy for the 10 to 12 hours shifts. “You just have the time to come back to your room, get changed, have dinner, have a shower, watch a bit of TV, call the family and you go back to sleep and wake up at 4 o’clock in the morning, and it’s another day for you,” said another female worker.

Bangladeshi Monish lives in a caravan to save money for his upcoming wedding. He arrived in Karratha two years ago, with a diploma in building and mechanical drafting, and now gets paid $35 an hour in an aluminum welding factory, for a 40 to 45 hour week. Monish will soon fly home to meet his wife, after his parents helped select some candidates, and will bring his new wife to Karratha where they will start a family.

“If you work hard you’ll get more money and you’ll have good future,” Monish told me. His words echo that of Australian Treasurer Wayne Swan who said in his May 10 budget speech: “We believe in the Australian promise that if you work hard you won’t be left behind”.

After spending five days driving in the long, empty outback and talking to mine workers like Monish, I realized that the dream of a better life is an integral part of Australia’s mining boom – but it’s a dream that takes a lot of hard work and sacrifice.

Those were the days of being a sort of slave inside the dark room, learning and dreaming about having the opportunity to shoot at the side of a track, any track, Interlagos in Sao Paulo was the closest at that time, so it became my objective for years.

Moving to Australia brought my dream one step closer and I went to Albert Park in 2009 for my first ever Grand Prix.

This year, my third, the F1 calendar was modified and Australia became the season opening race. Reuters were responsible for covering the wire agency pool at Albert Park, a chance for me to experience my long held wish and shoot from the heart of this event. To be granted pit lane access for the race.

My colleagues positioned around the track chasing the thrills and spills of the top names and cars while I carried out my assignment in pit lane for the qualifying session and race day. I am sure this is a piece of cake for the F1 photo experts but at my 3rd ever Grand Prix I devoted every ounce of concentration to this mission.

Taking whatever gems of information I could from the experts I ended up dragging a 400 f2.8, 70-200 f2.8, 28-70 f2.8 and 17-35 f2.8 lenses with me along with two Mark IV bodies and a flash because it’s Melbourne and getting cloudy and darker in less than a blink is always a possibility here. I got into the pit, ready, everything seemed to be under control until I realized I had forgotten my earplugs. What a huge mistake, huge! Even though I love the sound of those amazing engines, it took me several laps before I got used to the extremely noisy environment.

It was a terrific but stressful experience as I followed the stories of new Pirelli tires for all teams, Vettel picking up where he left last year, legendary Schumacher leaving the race with a non reliable car, Barrichello getting a new nose, a Russian who managed to get on the podium for the first time in his life, and former World champion Button being penalized. Every situation was very different from each other. Light conditions changed constantly. Different lenses were needed for each situation and with the fastest cars in the world leaving the pit lane at 100km/h there was no time to change them. It was almost a ‘get whatever you can’ experience; running from one garage to another with track marshals keeping an eye on you, not only for you not to come into the garages but also to keep you from being run over by a multi-million dollar car. And the noise, don’t forget the noise.

So as Sebastian Vettel was headed for a 23 second victory my colleagues made their way to the podium. Being in the pit already gave me a premium position for the champagne, one of those situations full of stress but I always shoot it with a smile in my face.

Would I do it again? Definitely! Someday I hope to experience the excitement of other legendary circuits like Monaco, Monza, Silverstone, Suzuka or Spa Francorchamps, with many other drivers and you never know, another Colombian perhaps?

At 32, there are plenty more races for me. The excitement of a sport like this doesn’t wash away quickly, not when your soul and your heart belong to your wife, football, Formula 1 and sports in general, even curling.

“There are some aspects of the rebuilding of infrastructure that will take, potentially, years,” Major-General Mick Slater, chief of the flood recovery operation in Queensland state, told a news conference in Rockhampton.

“We still don’t know what it looks like underwater. I know that major roads, rail lines, and bridges are all damaged.

About 200,000 people scattered across an area the size of France and Germany combined have been affected by the flooding and three people killed. Damage from the floods, the worst in the state in 50 years, has been estimated at $5 billion.

Floodwaters were receding on Friday in some areas but fresh flooding was forecast downstream as a result of more monsoon rains.

The muddy inland sea has stranded some of Australia’s best beef cattle on tiny islands, destroyed wheat and sugar crops, and swept deadly snakes into homes.

“In four minutes we saw four snakes, in about half-an-hour we saw about 10 just swimming around the yard and under the house and up on the fence,” said nine-year-old James Adams.

“I went upstairs to see if the door was unlocked or locked and there was a tiger snake sitting on the step. I had a bit of a fright, I jumped,” Adams told Australian radio.

Australia’s $50 billion coal export industry has been brought to a virtual standstill.

The biggest coal port, Dalrymple, has returned to near normal export levels, but port authorities are concerned they are being supplied by stockpiles from mines which may soon run out, causing exports to drop off if mines do not resume production. Gladstone port is closed, and more wet weather is forecast as the wet season has only just started.

The floods have swamped mines in Queensland state, paralysing operations that produce 35 percent of Australia’s estimated 259 million tonnes of exportable coal. Australia contributes two-thirds of global coking-coal exports, needed to make steel.

Queensland’s mines minister and analysts say it will be months until mines in Australia’s biggest coking coal area, the Bowen Basin, are fully operational.

PUMPING WATER FROM MINES TO TAKE WEEKS

One obstacle facing flooded mines from resuming operations is they are only permitted to pump some water out of pits and into the still flooded rivers.

London-listed Anglo American (AAL.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), one of the nation’s top four miners of steel-making coal, said it could take some weeks to pump water out of its flooded mines.

“It’s going to take some months to come back fully online,” Queensland Mines Minister Stephen Robertson told BBC.

In 2008, flooding stalled some mines for as long as six months, but others began producing within six weeks.

Anglo’s major rivals, Rio Tinto (RIO.AX: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) (RIO.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), Xstrata (XTA.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and BHP Billiton (BHP.AX: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) (BLT.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), have also been hit by the floods, and all have made force majeure declarations.

One commodities analyst estimated that 45 to 50 million tonnes of metallurgical-grade coal needed to make steel were under force majeure declarations.

Asian steel-makers are anxious about Australian supplies, worried the disruptions could outlast their stockpiles, which typically are worth around a month’s consumption.

Analysts expect steel coals to rise as much as a third to $300 a tonne in the aftermath of the floods, pushing thermal coal prices higher in the process.

RAIL LINES WASHED AWAY

The main coal carrier in the Bowen Basin said on Friday a major rail link would be under water until “well into next week” and assessment of rail damage was being hindered by floodwaters.

Parts of the Blackwater rail line linking Xstrata’s XTA.A(XTA.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) Rolleston mine to the port of Gladstone, which is closed due to a lack of coal, had been washed away by the force of the floodwaters, said an eyewitness.

“The ballasts have just washed away and the sleepers are hanging in the air,” said Ross Keely, a farm manager who flew over the flooded area. “I don’t know how they are going to fix it in a couple of weeks.”

Keely said kilometre after kilometre of roads south of the coal town of Emerald in the centre of the Bowen Basin had also been washed away. Washed out roads were preventing miners returning to pits to clean-up mines and re-start production.

A snap survey by Reuters showed the median expectation among analysts was that recovery in output to pre-flood levels would take about 3 months.

“Until floodwaters subside … we really won’t be able to make an assessment of what’s underneath and how quick the recovery will be,” said a spokesman from coal haulage firm QR National QRN.AX.

“We are unable to make a more accurate assessment until we can get access to all of the tracks to understand the recovery.”

QR National said three of its four coal rail systems were operating in Queensland and that locomotives and wagons, which had been moved out of flood zones, were ready to resume hauling coal once mines started producing. (Writing by Michael Perry, Editing by Dean Yates)

“There are some aspects of the rebuilding of infrastructure that will take, potentially, years,” Major-General Mick Slater, chief of the flood recovery operation in Queensland state, told a news conference in Rockhampton.

“We still don’t know what it looks like underwater. I know that major roads, rail lines, and bridges are all damaged.

About 200,000 people scattered across an area the size of France and Germany combined have been affected by the flooding and three people killed. Damage from the floods, the worst in the state in 50 years, has been estimated at $5 billion.

Floodwaters were receding on Friday in some areas but fresh flooding was forecast downstream as a result of more monsoon rains.

The muddy inland sea has stranded some of Australia’s best beef cattle on tiny islands, destroyed wheat and sugar crops, and swept deadly snakes into homes.

“In four minutes we saw four snakes, in about half-an-hour we saw about 10 just swimming around the yard and under the house and up on the fence,” said nine-year-old James Adams.

“I went upstairs to see if the door was unlocked or locked and there was a tiger snake sitting on the step. I had a bit of a fright, I jumped,” Adams told Australian radio.

Australia’s $50 billion coal export industry has been brought to a virtual standstill.

The biggest coal port, Dalrymple, has returned to near normal export levels, but port authorities are concerned they are being supplied by stockpiles from mines which may soon run out, causing exports to drop off if mines do not resume production. Gladstone port is closed, and more wet weather is forecast as the wet season has only just started.

The floods have swamped mines in Queensland state, paralyzing operations that produce 35 percent of Australia’s estimated 259 million tonnes of exportable coal. Australia contributes two-thirds of global coking-coal exports, needed to make steel.

Queensland’s mines minister and analysts say it will be months until mines in Australia’s biggest coking coal area, the Bowen Basin, are fully operational.

PUMPING WATER FROM MINES TO TAKE WEEKS

One obstacle facing flooded mines from resuming operations is they are only permitted to pump some water out of pits and into the still flooded rivers.

London-listed Anglo American, one of the nation’s top four miners of steel-making coal, said it could take some weeks to pump water out of its flooded mines.

“It’s going to take some months to come back fully online,” Queensland Mines Minister Stephen Robertson told BBC.

In 2008, flooding stalled some mines for as long as six months, but others began producing within six weeks.

Anglo’s major rivals, Rio Tinto, Xstrata and BHP Billiton, have also been hit by the floods, and all have made force majeure declarations.

One commodities analyst estimated that 45 to 50 million tonnes of metallurgical-grade coal needed to make steel were under force majeure declarations.

Asian steel-makers are anxious about Australian supplies, worried the disruptions could outlast their stockpiles, which typically are worth around a month’s consumption.

Analysts expect steel coals to rise as much as a third to $300 a tonne in the aftermath of the floods, pushing thermal coal prices higher in the process.

RAIL LINES WASHED AWAY

The main coal carrier in the Bowen Basin said on Friday a major rail link would be under water until “well into next week” and assessment of rail damage was being hindered by floodwaters.

Parts of the Blackwater rail line linking Xstrata’s Rolleston mine to the port of Gladstone, which is closed due to a lack of coal, had been washed away by the force of the floodwaters, said an eyewitness.

“The ballasts have just washed away and the sleepers are hanging in the air,” said Ross Keely, a farm manager who flew over the flooded area. “I don’t know how they are going to fix it in a couple of weeks.”

Keely said kilometer after kilometer of roads south of the coal town of Emerald in the center of the Bowen Basin had also been washed away. Washed out roads were preventing miners returning to pits to clean-up mines and re-start production.

A snap survey by Reuters showed the median expectation among analysts was that recovery in output to pre-flood levels would take about 3 months.

“Until floodwaters subside … we really won’t be able to make an assessment of what’s underneath and how quick the recovery will be,” said a spokesman from coal haulage firm QR National.

“We are unable to make a more accurate assessment until we can get access to all of the tracks to understand the recovery.”

QR National said three of its four coal rail systems were operating in Queensland and that locomotives and wagons, which had been moved out of flood zones, were ready to resume hauling coal once mines started producing.

(Writing by Michael Perry, Editing by Dean Yates)

“There are some aspects of the rebuilding of
infrastructure that will take, potentially, years,”
Major-General Mick Slater, chief of the flood recovery
operation in Queensland state, told a news conference in
Rockhampton.

“We still don’t know what it looks like underwater. I know
that major roads, rail lines, and bridges are all damaged.

About 200,000 people scattered across an area the size of
France and Germany combined have been affected by the flooding
and three people killed. Damage from the floods, the worst in
the state in 50 years, has been estimated at $5 billion.

Floodwaters were receding on Friday in some areas but
fresh flooding was forecast downstream as a result of more
monsoon rains.

The muddy inland sea has stranded some of Australia’s best
beef cattle on tiny islands, destroyed wheat and sugar crops,
and swept deadly snakes into homes.

“In four minutes we saw four snakes, in about half-an-hour
we saw about 10 just swimming around the yard and under the
house and up on the fence,” said nine-year-old James Adams.

“I went upstairs to see if the door was unlocked or locked
and there was a tiger snake sitting on the step. I had a bit
of a fright, I jumped,” Adams told Australian radio.

Australia’s $50 billion coal export industry has been
brought to a virtual standstill.

The biggest coal port, Dalrymple, has returned to near
normal export levels, but port authorities are concerned they
are being supplied by stockpiles from mines which may soon run
out, causing exports to drop off if mines do not resume
production. Gladstone port is closed, and more wet weather is
forecast as the wet season has only just started.

The floods have swamped mines in Queensland state,
paralysing operations that produce 35 percent of Australia’s
estimated 259 million tonnes of exportable coal. Australia
contributes two-thirds of global coking-coal exports, needed
to make steel.

Queensland’s mines minister and analysts say it will be
months until mines in Australia’s biggest coking coal area,
the Bowen Basin, are fully operational.

PUMPING WATER FROM MINES TO TAKE WEEKS

One obstacle facing flooded mines from resuming operations
is they are only permitted to pump some water out of pits and
into the still flooded rivers.

London-listed Anglo American , one of the nation’s
top four miners of steel-making coal, said it could take some
weeks to pump water out of its flooded mines.

“It’s going to take some months to come back fully
online,” Queensland Mines Minister Stephen Robertson told BBC.

In 2008, flooding stalled some mines for as long as six
months, but others began producing within six weeks.

Anglo’s major rivals, Rio Tinto , Xstrata
and BHP Billiton , have also been hit
by the floods, and all have made force majeure declarations.

One commodities analyst estimated that 45 to 50 million
tonnes of metallurgical-grade coal needed to make steel were
under force majeure declarations.

Asian steel-makers are anxious about Australian supplies,
worried the disruptions could outlast their stockpiles, which
typically are worth around a month’s consumption.
[ID:nTOE70502T]

Analysts expect steel coals to rise as much as a third to
$300 a tonne in the aftermath of the floods, pushing thermal
coal prices higher in the process.

RAIL LINES WASHED AWAY

The main coal carrier in the Bowen Basin said on Friday a
major rail link would be under water until “well into next
week” and assessment of rail damage was being hindered by
floodwaters.

Parts of the Blackwater rail line linking Xstrata’s
Rolleston mine to the port of Gladstone, which
is closed due to a lack of coal, had been washed away by the
force of the floodwaters, said an eyewitness.

“The ballasts have just washed away and the sleepers are
hanging in the air,” said Ross Keely, a farm manager who flew
over the flooded area. “I don’t know how they are going to fix
it in a couple of weeks.”

Keely said kilometre after kilometre of roads south of the
coal town of Emerald in the centre of the Bowen Basin had also
been washed away. Washed out roads were preventing miners
returning to pits to clean-up mines and re-start production.

A snap survey by Reuters showed the median expectation
among analysts was that recovery in output to pre-flood levels
would take about 3 months. [ID:nSGE7050CC]

“Until floodwaters subside … we really won’t be able to
make an assessment of what’s underneath and how quick the
recovery will be,” said a spokesman from coal haulage firm QR
National .

“We are unable to make a more accurate assessment until we
can get access to all of the tracks to understand the recovery.”

QR National said three of its four coal rail systems were
operating in Queensland and that locomotives and wagons, which
had been moved out of flood zones, were ready to resume
hauling coal once mines started producing.

(Writing by Michael Perry, Editing by Dean Yates)

Floods swamped coking coal mines in Queensland state in
December, paralysing operations that produce 35 percent of
Australia’s estimated 259 million tonnes of exportable coal.
Australia accounts for two-thirds of global coking coal
exports, which are needed to make steel.

About 200,000 people scattered across an area the size of
France and Germany combined have been affected by the flooding
in Queensland. Damage from the floods, the worst in the state
in 50 years, has been estimated at $5 billion.

London-listed Anglo American , one of the nation’s
top four miners of steel-making coal, said it was preparing to
pump water out of its flooded mines but that it was too early
to say when its collieries could resume operation.

“Our focus is currently on mobilising our people and other
resources and de-watering flooded coal pits, which we estimate
will take some weeks,” Seamus French, head of the group’s
metallurgical coal division, said in a statement.

Anglo has about seven coal mines in Queensland, which
accounts for most of Australia’s coking-coal exports.

Anglo’s major rivals, Rio Tinto , Xstrata
and BHP Billiton , have also been hit
by the floods, and all have made force majeure declarations,
which companies can evoke to temporarily release them from
delivery obligations.

The flooding is already receding in some coal fields, but
all four major producers still face supply disruptions and
cannot say when operations would return to normal.

“It’s impossible to say at present (how long coal
operations will be down). If there are no further weather
events, things could be back to normal within a month, however
we are only at the start of the wet season,” Colin Hamilton of
Macquarie Commodities Research in London told Reuters in an
email.

In 2008, flooding kept some mines out of action for as
much as six months, but others were able to start producing
within four to six weeks, said Andrew Harrington, an analyst
at Patersons Securities in Sydney.

Mines then turned up output to recoup losses and ended the
year about 10 percent below where they otherwise would have
been.

“This time around, it’s happening a lot earlier, it looks
a lot worse, and we’re still seeing more rainfall,” said
Harrington.

CAMELS, HORSES AND SNAKES

Floodwaters have begun to slowly recede in some districts
in Queensland, but were still rising in some areas further
south, including around the town of St George.

In Rockhampton, a cattle town of 75,000, muddy flood
waters had dropped a few inches overnight despite more heavy
rains but it will take days before a cleanup can begin. On
pockets of higher land, camels and horses grazed on people’s
front lawns, while residents relied on boats to fetch supplies.

The majority of homes are built on stilts in the
flood-prone area, so water had not entered living spaces in
most cases and generators were providing power.

Hospitals in central Queensland have also been
stockpiling anti-venom, media reported, after snakes sought
refuge in homes, including the deadly brown snake.

ECONOMIC COST PUT AT $5 BILLION

Three people have been killed in the floods and hundreds
left homeless. The economic cost of the inundation, which some
scientists are linking to global warming and rising sea
temperatures, is already estimated at around $5 billion.

Roads, rail lines and bridges have been submerged, and
authorities are waiting for the waters to recede before they
can assess how much vital infrastructure needs rebuilding.

Australian stocks were flat on Thursday,
undermined in part by worries about the impact of flooding on
mining profits.

Dalrymple Bay Coal Terminal, in the country’s largest coal
export port, was getting coal from inland mines on Thursday,
but warned future deliveries could dry up unless mines started
reopening by the weekend.

“If there is an issue with mine production and we are
drawing down our stockpiles, it’s only a matter of time before
we exhaust those,” said Dalrymple spokesman Greg Smith.

“It will be Friday or so before we would start to get an
indication — if the trains we send up to mines are
cancelled,” he added. Typically the port receives about
230,000-240,000 tonnes of coal daily from mines.

“If we can’t get it in, we can’t ship it out.”

QR National , the country’s biggest coal freight
business, said on Thursday it was ramping up operations on a
reopened rail line, enabling more coal to reach the coast, but
problems remained elsewhere on its flood-hit network.

A QR National spokesman said more tonnage was reaching
Gladstone port on its Moura line, which services
Anglo-American’s Callide and Dawson mines as well as Cockatoo
Coal’s Baralaba operation.

But QR National’s Blackwater line remained closed,
impacting operations for Wesfarmers , BHP Billiton,
Xstrata and Rio Tinto.

“The Blackwater coal system remains closed and we are
currently waiting for the flood waters to recede. That’s
expected to go well into next week,” the spokesman said.

(Additional reporting by Amy Pyett)

(Reporting by Rebekah Kebede and James Regan; Editing by Ed
Davies and Dean Yates)

The worst flooding in decades has affected an area the size of Germany and France, left towns virtual islands in a muddy inland sea, cut major rail and road links to coal ports, slashed exports and forced up world coal prices.

“Seventy-five per cent of our mines are currently not operating because of this flood, so that’s a massive impact on the international markets and the international manufacture of steel,” Premier Anna Bligh told local television.

Queensland state is the world’s biggest exporter of coal used in steel-making.

“Queensland is a very big state. It relies on the lifelines of its transport system, and those transport systems in some cases are facing catastrophic damage,” said Bligh.

“Without doubt this disaster is without precedent in its size and its scale here in Queensland. What I’m seeing in every community I visit is heartbreak, devastation.”

Residents in flooded towns worked desperately to build sandbag levees on Wednesday in the hope of holding back the rising waters. In the cattle town of Rockhampton, a rise of just 20 cm (8 in) in floodwaters would inundate another 400 homes and lap at the front door of a further 4,000 properties.

“It’s rising very slowly. We’re hoping against hope that we might not reach the 9.4 meter (31 ft) mark. Let’s hope we dodge the bullet. Every centimeter counts,” said Queensland state disaster co-ordinator Ian Stewart.

Some 200,000 people have been affected by the floods and three have drowned. Authorities are warning people to stay out of floodwaters, not just because of the risk of drowning. Snakes and crocodiles are being washed into homes and shops.

Macarthur Coal said on Wednesday it had resumed transporting coal by rail to Dalrymple Bay Coal Terminal this week, but force majeure remained in place and future coal trains will depend on coal availability.

“Once the pits are free of water, we’ll have more coal exposed that can be processed and transported,” said Nicole Hollows, Macarthur’s managing director.

“But it is not possible to predict when we will return to a steady state of mining as that largely depends on any future rain.”

Wesfarmers is also resuming output at its Curragh mine in the Bowen Basin, but retained its declaration of force majeure, which releases companies from contractual obligations.

A spokesman for Dalrymple port warned that unless mine companies resume production in the nation’s biggest coal region soon, coal export shipments could again be cut.

Coal mines with an annual capacity of more than 90 million tones are under force majeure.

Australia accounts for more than half of global coking coal exports, which are vital to steelmakers, especially in Asian countries such as booming China.

The floods have hit 35 percent of Australia’s estimated 259 million tones of coal exports in 2009. An estimated $1 billion has been lost in coal production due to the floods, said the Queensland Resource Council.

FRESH FLOODS FEARED

While floodwaters are receding in the Bowen Basin coal region, flooding continued further downstream and fresh monsoonal rains are forecast to cause fresh flooding.

Flood warnings have been declared for seven river systems, with one swollen river now 6 km (4 miles) wide.

“It’s going to be two weeks before people…are able to move back into their homes,” said Rockhampton mayor Brad Carter.

Residents in the town of St George have built dirt moats to try and stop the floodwaters reaching their homes, but authorities fear 80 percent of the small town will be swamped if the Balonne River reaches a record 14 meters on Saturday.

“It’s started to rain here again. We could get a flood on top of our (earlier) flood,” said Barnaby Joyce, a National party senator who lives in St George.

The Australian floods, which have cut off 22 towns, have been caused by a “La Nina” weather pattern which produces monsoonal rains over the western Pacific and Southeast Asia.

Australia recorded its third wettest year on record in 2010, with 11 months of above-average rainfall soaking the east of the country because of La Nina, the nation’s weather Balonne River reaches a record 14 meters on Saturday.

The flood disaster, say analysts, is forecast to shave around 0.4 percentage points off GDP, which equates to just over A$5 billion of Australia’s annual output of A$1.3 trillion.

“The cost is already in the billions and billions of dollars. And that’s in public infrastructure, private dwellings and possessions, crop losses, stock losses, business impacted,” said Queensland Emergency Services Minister Neil Roberts.

“It’s just going to be an enormous bill, and it’s going to take a long, long time to recover.”

(Reporting and writing by Michael Perry in Sydney; Additional reporting by James Regan in Sydney, James Grubel in Canberra and Rebekah Kebede in Perth; Editing by Mark Bendeich and Alex Richardson)