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Australia

Appin Mine

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Australia

Appin Mine

Location: 52 km SW from Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

Regional Office:

Port Kembla Coal Terminal Port Kembla Road Inner Harbour
Port Kembla
New South Wales, Australia
2505

Contacts:

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Categories

Summary

Mine TypeUnderground
StatusActive
Commodities
  • Coal (metallurgical)
Mining Method
  • Longwall
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Mine Life... Lock
SnapshotAppin Mine consists of the merged Appin (now Appin Colliery – East) and Tower (now Appin Colliery - West) Collieries.

Appin Mine extracts coal from the Bulli Seam within the Southern Coalfield.

Owners

SourceSource
CompanyInterestOwnership
M Resources Pty Ltd. 30 % Indirect
Golden Energy and Resources Pte. Ltd. 70 % Indirect
GEAR M Illawarra Met Coal Pty Ltd. (operator) 100 % Direct
On 29 February 2024, South32 Limited has entered into a binding agreement to sell Illawarra Metallurgical Coal to an entity owned by Golden Energy and Resources Pte Ltd (GEAR) and M Resources Pty Ltd.

GEAR M Illawarra Met Coal Pty Ltd will acquire 100% of Illawarra Metallurgical Coal. Subsidiaries of GEAR and M Resources hold shares in GEAR M Illawarra Met Coal Pty Ltd of 70% and 30% respectively.

On 29 August 2024, South32 Limited announced that the sale of Illawarra Metallurgical Coal to an entity owned by Golden Energy and Resources Pte Ltd and M Resources Pty Ltd was successfully completed.

Contractors

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SourceSource

Deposit type

  • Sedimentary

Summary:

Illawarra Coal's assets are located in the southern portion of the Sydney Basin within the Southern Coalfield.

The full sequence of Triassic to Permian sedimentary units are present within the Illawarra Coal's areas, including the Permian Shoalhaven Group, Illawarra Coal Measures and the overlying Triassic Narrabeen Group and Hawkesbury Sandstone.

Bulli Coal is the uppermost coal unit in the Illawarra Coal Measures. It is extensively worked in the northern portions of the Southern Coalfield. The Bulli Seam is the main economic coal seam for the Bulli Seam Operation - Appin mine and West Cliff Colliery (now Appin North). It averages approximately 2.6 m thick across Appin, gaining a maximum thickness of approximately 4.1 m. The Bulli Seam thins to approximately 1.4 m in the south eastern part of West Cliff (now Appin North) and also south west of Appin. Overall, the coal thickness for the Bulli Seam is generally consistent across Bulli Seam Operation in the mined out areas and planned areas of longwall mining;

The structure over the Illawarra operation area is relatively well defined based on the geological data available. Seam dips over the area are generally low (1° to 3°).

The faults have been identified by 3D seismic, 2D seismic, underground mapping, underground drilling, de-gassing intra-seam holes and, to a lesser extent, interpreted from floor contours generated from drill-hole data. The faults are predominately extension normal faults.

Fifty-one faults have been interpreted at the Bulli Seam Operation area to a level of confidence that allows them to be incorporated in the geological model. The throw on the Appin faults average approximately 20 m, although the maximum throw is 90 m; approximately 13 faults have throws of greater than 5 m. As the average thickness of the Bulli Seam is less than 2.7 m, a throw of more than 2 to 3 m can adversely impact the potential for eventual economic extraction. This was demonstrated at West Cliff (now Appin North) where LW 22 to 24 were constrained due to faulting. The Appin mine plan has been laid out to avoid the significant faulting identified by exploration to date.

The Bulli Seam Operation has igneous dykes varying from near vertical and thin (less than 0.3 m), which are boggy and soft and easy to mine, to more significant dykes of 4 to 5 m in width which are very hard (up to UCS of 270 MPa) and more difficult to mine. Through geological studies and operating experience, the igneous dykes are understood and have been observed to have narrow contact margins. Hard and wide dykes are being intercepted in the current mining area.

Reserves

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Mining Methods

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Heavy Mobile Equipment

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Comminution

Crushers and Mills

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Processing

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Commodity Production

CommodityUnits20252024202320222021202020192018201720162015
Coal (metallurgical) Mt  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe3 1.4 3.4 4.9 5.6 
All production numbers are expressed as clean coal. ^ Guidance / Forecast.

Operational metrics

Metrics20252024202320222021202020192018201720162015
Coal tonnes mined  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe3.66 Mt1.77 Mt4 Mt6.1 Mt3.8 Mt
Reject  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe0.56 Mt0.36 Mt0.6 Mt1.6 Mt
Raw coal annual capacity  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe7.5 Mt7.5 Mt
Annual processing capacity  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe7.5 Mt
^ Guidance / Forecast.

Production Costs

Commodity production costs have not been reported.

Personnel

Mine Management

Job TitleNameProfileRef. Date
....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required Subscription required Oct 20, 2024
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Workforce

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Aerial view:

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