Grosvenor coal mine construction 'encouraging'

Queensland Resources Minister Andrew Cripps says coal mining in the state's central region is still progressing, despite recent downturns.

Mr Cripps has visited Anglo-American's Moranbah mines, including Grosvenor Mine, a metallurgical coal operation due to start production in 2016.

He says the construction of the mine is encouraging.

"There's not a lot of new projects on greenfield sites going ahead in the resources sector in Queensland at the moment but the Grosvenor mine is going ahead and that gives us a great deal of confidence," he said.

He says Queensland's mining industry is still performing well, despite a tough global market.

"The operation of Moranbah north mine is going very well, their production is very solid and the progress of the construction of the new Grosvenor Mine, encouraging indeed," he said.

"There's 700 jobs, construction jobs, involved at the moment at the Grosvenor Mine and that will be providing 350 permanent jobs when it goes into production."