Coal in Australia

Coal is mined in every state of Australia. It is used to generate electricity and is exported. 75% of the coal mined in Australia is exported, mostly to eastern Asia. In 2000/01, 258.5 million tonnes of coal was mined, and 193.6 million tonnes exported. Coal also provides about 85% of Australia's electricity production.

Coal mining in Australia has become more controversial because of the strong link between burning coal, including exported coal, and climate change, global warming and sea level rise.

Forms of coal

Two forms of coal are mined in Australia, depending on the region: high quality black coal and lower quality brown coal.

Black coal is found in Queensland and New South Wales, and is used for both domestic power generation and for export overseas. It is generally mined underground before being transported by rail to power stations, or export shipping terminals. Black coal was also once exported to other Australian states for power generation and industrial boilers.

Brown coal is found in Victoria and South Australia, and is of lower quality due a higher ash and water content. As a result Victoria adopted German power station and briquette technology in the 1920s to utilize the brown coal reserves of the Latrobe Valley. Today there are now three open cut brown coal mines in Victoria used for baseload power generation.

Fast facts

1. Australia is the world's largest exporter of black coal, a position it has held since 1984
2. Australia has more than 42 billion tonnes of economically recoverable reserves of black coal throughout Australia. The production for export markets is currently based on deposits in Queensland and New South Wales.

1. Australia is the fourth largest coal producer in the world
2. Australia produced 258.5 million tonnes of coal in 2000/01, of which nearly 230 million tonnes was saleable coal
3. Coal is Australia's largest export commodity
4. Australia exports 75% of its coal production, making the country the largest coal exporter in the world - a position Australia has held since 1986
5. Exports of 193.6 million tonnes in 2000/01 were worth $10.8 billion or 10% of Australia's merchandise trade
6. Coal provides about 85% of Australia's electricity generation requirements
7. The coal industry employs 18,840 workers directly and many more indirectly
8. Productivity has increased by 15% annually since 1996/97
9. Many Australian coals have environmental benefits such as high energy content, low levels of sulphur, nitrogen and ash
10. Australia has about 77 billion tonnes of coal resources
11. The Asian market accounts for 80% of Australian coal exports with the top three markets being Japan (47%), Korea (12%) and Taiwan (9%)
12. In the metallurgical coal market, Australia is not competetive at all in exporting coal to the Asian region and Europe.
13. In the thermal coal market, Australia is competitive in exporting coal to the Asian region, with its main competitors being China and Indonesia. Australia is less competitive in exporting coal to the European market due to shipping distances, and as such the main competition is from South Africa, Colombia, USA, and the Russian Federation.

Major mines

Major Australian Coal Mines)[2][3]

Mine	State	Location	Ultimate Owner	Lat & Long	Type of Coal	Tons Mined PA	Tons Exported PA	Major Buyers	Major Method
Anglesea	VIC	Anglesea	Alcoa	?	Lignite	?	nil	Anglesea Power Station	Open Cut
Callide	QLD	Callide (Biloela)	Anglo Coal	?	Thermal	?	?	?	Open Cut
Capcoal	QLD	Middlemount	Anglo Coal	?	Hard Coking Coal & PCI	7 Mt	?	?	Open Cut & Underground
Dawson	QLD	Dawson (Moura)	Anglo Coal	?	Soft Coking & Thermal	7 Mt	?	?	Open Cut
Drayton	NSW	Hunter Valley	Anglo Coal	?	Thermal	5 Mt	?	?	Open Cut
Goonyella/Riverside	QLD	Moranbah	BMA	?	?	?	?	?	Open Cut
Griffin Coal	WA	Collie	Ric Stowe	?	Bitumous	?	nil	Bluewaters Power, Synergy Power	Open Cut
Leigh Creek	SA	Leigh Creek	?	?	?	?	?	?	Open Cut
Loy Lang	VIC	Traralgon	Loy Yang Power	?	Lignite	?	nil	Loy Yang Power Station	Open Cut
Moranbah North	QLD	Moranbah	Anglo Coal	?	Hard Coking Coal	4.5 Mt	?	?	Underground
Morwell	VIC	Morwell	International Power	?	Lignite	?	nil	Hazelwood Power Station, Energy Brix	Open Cut
Norwich Park	QLD	Dysart	BMA	?	?	?	?	?	Open Cut
Peak Downs	QLD	Moranbah	BMA	?	?	?	?	?	Open Cut
Sararji	QLD	Dysart	BMA	?	?	?	?	?	Open Cut
Ulan	NSW	Ulan via Mudgee	Xstrata	?	Thermal	5 million	?	?	Open Cut & Underground
Wesfarmers Premier Coal	WA	Collie	Wesfarmers	?	Bitumous	3-4 million	nil	Synergy Power	Open Cut
Yallourn	VIC	Yallourn	TRUenergy	?	Lignite	?	nil	Yallourn Power Station	Open Cut
Bulga Coal	NSW	Singleton	Xstrata	?	Thermal/Coking	10.8 million	?	?	Open Cut

Proposed mines

Major Australian Coal Mines[4]

Mine	State	Location	Ultimate Owner	Lat & Long	Type of Coal	Est Tons Mined PA	Est Tons Exported PA	Expected Major Buyers	Major Method
Anvil Hill	NSW	Wybong	Centennial Coal	?	?	10Mt	?	?	Open Cut

Major export markets for Australian coal

Major Export Markets For Australian Coal[5]

Country	Tons Coking	Tons Steaming	Tons Total	Rank	% of exports
Japan	?	?	?	1	47
Korea	?	?	?	2	12
Taiwan	?	?	?	3	9
China	?	?	?	?

Major overseas end users of Australian coal

Major End Users of Australian Coal[6]

Purchaser	Country	Tons	Type of Coal	Purpose
China	?	?	?	?
Japan	?	?	?	?

Major coal export ports

Major Australian Coal Export Ports[7]

Port	State	Mill Tons 2000/1	Mill Tons 2001/2	Australian # 2002	World # 2002
Hay Point	QLD	69.283	70,753	1	1
Newcastle	NSW	67.283	69.299	2	?
Gladstone	QLD	35.436	37.502?	?	?
Abbot Point	?	10.562	11,878	?	?
Port Kembla	NSW	8.573	8.206	?	?
Brisbane	QLD	2.319	2.889	?	?
Total	na	193.456	200.527	na	?

Major coal mining companies

Major Australian Coal Mining Companies)[8]

Company	Main Mines	Tot Coal Mined
AMCI Holdings Australia Pty Ltd	?	?
Anglo Coal Australia Ltd	?	?
Bloomfield Collieries Pty Ltd	?	?
BM Alliance Coal Operations Pty Ltd	?	?
Centennial Coal Company Ltd	?	?
Coalpac Pty Ltd	?	?
Cornwall Coal Company	?	?
Donaldson Coal Pty Ltd	?	?
Enhance Place Pty Ltd	?	?
Ensham Resources Pty Ltd	?	?
Felix Resources Limited	?	?
Foxleigh Joint Venture	?	?
Gloucester Coal Ltd	?	?
Hunter Valley Energy Coal	?	?
Idemitsu Australia Resources Pty Ltd	?	?
Illawarra Coal Holdings Pty Ltd	?	?
Jellinbah Resources Pty Ltd	?	?
Lithgow Coal Company Pty Ltd	?	?
Macarthur Coal Limited	?	?
Muswellbrook Coal Company Ltd	?	?
New Hope Corporation Ltd	?	?
Peabody Pacific Pty Ltd	?	?
Rio Tinto Coal Australia Pty Ltd	?	?
Wesfarmers Coal Ltd	?	?
Whitehaven Coal Mining Pty Ltd	?	?
Xstrata Coal Pty Ltd	?	?

Environmental impacts

The Australian community is understandably concerned about any mining activity that could place private or public property or valuable landscapes at risk. Extensive rehabilitation of areas mined helps to ensure that land capability, after coal mining, meets agreed and appropriate standards.

Coal is the principal fossil fuel used in power generation not only in Australia but in many other countries. Links between coal mining, coal burning, and climate change are being discussed widely in Australia.

On 27 November 2006 the NSW Land & Environment Court judge Justice Nicola Pain made the historic decision to set aside the Director-General's acceptance of the Environmental Assessment for the Anvil Hill coal mine, on the grounds that it did not include a comprehensive greenhouse gas assessment, even though the proposed mining of coal was for export. The NSW Government did not appeal this decision.

See also

• Mining in Australia
• Energy in Victoria
• Coal Mining
• Coal mining debate
• Australian Coal Alliance

External links

• "Illawarra Coal" - An unofficial history of coal mining in the Illawarra

• worldenergy.org
• "Collinsville Coalface Experience" [9]