The Ensham coal mine (Ensham) is located approximately 40 km east of Emerald, Queensland.

Within the Ensham area, the Rangal Coal Measures comprise the Aries, Castor, Pollux and Orion seams in descending order, the upper three being exploited by open cut mining and the Aries Castor being exploited by underground mining methods. Seam thickness in the open cut area averages 5 to 6 m whilst the underground area generally comprises a single seam averaging 3 m in thickness.

Ensham produces only a limited amount of semi soft coking coal, with the majority product being a low ash, sulphur, high energy thermal coal. They can produce thermal coals with ash content between 10 to 16% and a calorific value of 6000 to 7000 kcal/kg. Total sulphur content commonly ranges between 0.6 and 0.9% and volatile matter is commonly in the order of 25 to 27%.

The existing mining operations at Ensham Mine consist of open-cut and underground operations. The opencut operation is scheduled to continue to approximately 2024, followed by further rehabilitation of the open-cut mine. Existing underground operations are due to cease in 2028.

Underground mining.
The underground operations currently use the bord and pillar mining method. This involves the use of a continuous miner to remove the ROM coal while leaving a series of coal pillars to support the roof.

The existing underground workings are accessed through portals located in Pit C. The portals are used for conveying ROM coal from the workings to the Coal Handling Plant (CHP) and for personnel and materials access.

Extracted coal is transported by a system of underground conveyors to the surface. Coal is then transported by semitrailers to the CHP where it is crushed and sized. Product coal is transported via rail to Gladstone for the Gladstone Power Station and to the port for export.

The underground mine services are largely integrated wherever possible with those of the open-cut mine in aspects such as coal handling, transport, waste and water management.

Open pit mining.
The Open Cut is a dragline operation with one active dragline removing overburden. Once exposed, the coal is removed by excavators and trucks and placed on stockpiles.

Ensham Life of Mine Extension Project.
The proposed Project will allow extension of the current underground bord and pillar operations. Existing underground and surface facilities, systems and equipment infrastructure including road, rail and mine infrastructure equipment that service the existing mine will be utilised.

With inclusion of the proposed Project, Ensham Mine will:
- Continue to produce at current planned production rates of 4.5 million tonnes per annum and would not seek to change the current Environmental Authority (EA) limit (condition A5) which authorises the mining of 12 million tonnes of run of mine coal per annum.
- enable the extension of the Ensham Mine by up to nine years with sufficient coal reserves to approximately 2037.
- extend the Ensham mine underground operation to the west (encompassing a new mining lease area (referred to as Zone 1) by developing a portion of MDL 217)
- continue to utilise approved operational mine infrastructure as no additional surface infrastructure is proposed as part of the Project activities (Zone 1).
- continue to utilise approved operational mine infrastructure as no additional surface infrastructure is proposed as part of the Project activities (Zone 1).

The proposed Project is expected to commence in 2021.

The existing CHP comprises a truck dump station, crushing and screening plant, product conveyors, stackers, reclaim system and loadout system. An upgrade of the CHP is currently being investigated to include waste rock removal from the ROM coal. In line with existing operation, the waste rock will continue to be returned to the mining voids and used as fill. After crushing, the product coal will continue to be stockpiled and loaded onto trains via the reclaim tunnel and bin.