Metropolitan Coal is located within the Southern Coalfield, within the southern part of the Sydney Basin, which is infilled with sedimentary rocks of Permian age (<270 million years ago) and of Triassic age (<225 million years ago).

Three formally named coal seams of the Illawarra Coal Measures are present in the Southern Coalfield, namely the Bulli, Balgownie and Wongawilli Seams.

Immediately overlying the Bulli Coal unit of the Illawarra Coal Measures are sandstones and claystones of the Narrabeen Group. The Narrabeen Group contains the Newport Formation (sometimes referred to as the Gosford Formation), the Bald Hill Claystone (also referred to as Chocolate Shale and formed as a result of laterite weathering Gerringong Volcanics), the Bulgo Sandstone, the Stanwell Park Claystone/Shale, the Scarborough Sandstone, the Wombarra Shale and the Coal Cliff Sandstone. At the top of the sequence in the area of interest is the Hawkesbury Sandstone (HCPL, 2008).

Many features of the NSW Coalfields surface topography are directly correlated to the basement structure, the depth of the basement from the surface through many sedimentary epochs and the deformational episodes of the basement rock. The Palaeozoic granite basement rock underlies the Sydney Basin sedimentary rocks. At Metropolitan Coal the total depth of Sydney Basin sedimentation is 2.3 km.

Surface lineaments are linear features in the surface landscape, preferentially eroded, that ........

Coal extracted from the underground mining operations is transferred by conveyor to the surface facilities area. Longwalls 305-307 extraction will occur from north to south. Longwalls 305-307 will be extracted using retreating longwall mining methods for secondary extraction of a panel with a 138 m void width. The longwall panel will be formed by driving two sets of gate roads (the tailgate and maingate roads). Each gate road requires two roadways (headings) to be driven parallel to each other. The two roadways will be used for ventilation purposes, with one of the roadways utilised as a transport road and the other roadway used to convey the coal that will be mined back to the main conveyors. Construction of development main headings and gate roads are mined using continuous miners. The dimensions of the headings will be approximately 5.2 m wide and 3.2 m in height. The headings are connected approximately every 120 m by driving a cut-through from one heading to another which forms pillars of coal along the length of the gate road. The tailgate and maingate roads are separated by the 133 m wide longwall panel (measured between roadway centrelines). The maingate roads and tailgate roads are then linked together by driving an installation road and bleeder road at the top end of the longwall panels. Run-of-mine (ROM) coal will be conveyed by the maingate conveyor to the main conveyor which will carry coal to the surface of the mine. The extraction of Longwall 305 commenced o ........

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