Advancing Circularity in Queensland’s resource sector

The Pit to Port (P2P) Resource Circularity Project is a strategic, multi-phased initiative aimed at understanding circular economy principles across the value chain of BHP Mitsubishi Alliance’s (BMA) Caval Ridge Mine and Hay Point Coal Terminal operations in Queensland.  The Resources Centre of Excellence (RCOE), working with BMA and circular economy experts, Coreo and Metabolic, completed this project to help bring the idea to the wider region.

The project began with a pilot to explore how one mine and port could help bring circular economy ideas to the wider resources sector. The team studied how materials move through the region, spoke stakeholders and looked at where the biggest impacts happened. Using quantitative and qualitative methods, the mean mapped material flows and assessed embodied impacts to uncover 44 circular initiatives.  These ideas were then ranked based on how much they could help environmentally, economically, socially, and culturally.  

The next phase of the project involves acting on the framework and recommendations developed from phase 1 of the project to ultimately create an interlinked network of Bowen Basin sectors, businesses and community which optimise services to each other, the flow of materials more sustainably, and the regeneration of natural and social systems.