Australia 's environment ministry is to examine plans for a new A$1.2 billion export terminal in Queensland state capable of handling up to 22 million metric tons of coal annually.

Fitzroy Terminal Project Pty Ltd. is proposing to build a facility at Port Alma that will use covered barges to shift coal from onshore stockpiles to ships moored at sea, according to a filing posted Tuesday on the website of the Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities.

The terminal at Port Alma, some 40 kilometers northwest of the major coal-export port of Gladstone , would have a 13-kilometer spur line connecting it to the main Blackwater and Moura rail networks.

Key to the proposal is the use of transhipping technology--floating vessels with conveyer belts--which would allow coal to be moved from barges to capesize and panamax vessels anchored in deep water.

According to the filing, the benefits of using technology to load coal offshore include a smaller land footprint for the terminal and minimal dredging of the seabed close to shore. Also, the barges and transhipper can move out to sea when bad weather, including cyclones, approaches.

"Barging is not a new concept, [but is] increasingly improving as an effective mode of transport throughout the world," Fitzroy Terminal said in its filing, citing examples in Indonesia , Europe and North America .

Australia is the world's largest coal exporter, but infrastructure bottlenecks at ports have led some analysts to predict that it could soon be overtaken by Indonesia . Capacity restraints are crimping Australia 's ability to take advantage of rising demand in North Asia for thermal coal used to generate power and coking coal, a key ingredient in steelmaking.

Heavy investment is planned to open up new export routes and expand existing ports, including a A$6.2 billion expansion of the port of Abbot Point and the new Wiggins Island Coal Terminal in Queensland , but these are several years away from completion.

According to closely held Mitchell Group Holdings, which acquired a controlling interest in the Fitzroy Terminal project last year, the facility will be built in two phases and it is targeted to start up in 2015.

Coal-handling capacity in the first phase stage would be limited to 10 million tons, ramping up to around 22 million tons later.

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