Tahmoor Mine lies in the southern part of the Permo-Triassic Sydney Basin, within which the main coal bearing sequence is the Illawarra Coal Measures. The Tahmoor South Project involves extraction from the Bulli Seam, which is the upper most seam in the Illawarra Coal Measures and is the seam currently mined at the Tahmoor Mine. In the Project area, the Bulli coal seam is located approximately 370 to 430 m below the surface and is approximately 1.8 to 3.3 m thick.

The Bulli seam coal is predominantly a hard-coking coal used in steel making.

Two major fault zones exist in the Project area: the Nepean Fault and the Central Fault zones. The presence of these fault zones has constrained the extent of longwalls and defined the mining domain for the proposed development. The Nepean Fault zone is the most significant geological feature. This fault is approximately 350 m wide and trends north-south along the eastern boundary of the area. The Central Fault zone is a smaller fault and trends along the western and southern boundaries.

The Tahmoor South Project is an extension of underground mining at Tahmoor, to the south of existing surface facilities. The project seeks to extend the life of mining at the Tahmoor Mine until approximately 2032, extending employment for close to 400 people for a further 10 years.

Coal extraction of up to 4 million tonnes of Run of Mine (ROM) coal per annum is proposed with up to 33 million tonnes of ROM coal proposed over the life of the Project through Longwall mining. This technique for coal extraction has been used by Tahmoor Mine for over 30 years.

Coal extraction is proposed from two series (A & B) of 6 longwalls which would be orientated in a south-east / north-west direction. Longwall widths would be up to 283 m and lengths would vary between 1,515 m (LW 101B) and 3,810 m (LW 106B). Overburden depth would range from a minimum of 365 m above proposed LW 105A to a maximum of 410 m above proposed LWs 101A, 101B and 102B. The proposed extraction heights vary from a minimum of 2.1 m to a maximum of 2.6 m.

Tahmoor South Mine Schedule:
• LW101A-103A – 2022 to 2024
• LW101B-106B – 2025 to 2030
• LW104A-106A – 2031 to 2032

Once the coal has been extracted and brought to the surface, it would be processed at Tahmoor Mine’s existing facilities, before being transported primarily on rail to domestic and international customers.

The Run of Mine (ROM) feed is normally in the size range of 0 to 250mm. The feed is sized to 100 mm using a divergator. The +100mm reports to the primary crusher and is crushed to 100mm top size. The combined product reports to the raw coal sizing screen and material over 50mm is crushed in the secondary crusher to 50mm maximum. The product from this operation is de-slimed over 2 de-sliming screens to 0.5mm.

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