Mining Intelligence and News
Australia

Premier Mine

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Overview

Mine TypeOpen Pit
StatusActive
Commodities
  • Coal (thermal)
Mining Method
  • Truck & Shovel / Loader
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SnapshotThe Premier Mine is a flexible operation extracting from a wide selection of coal seams to enable consistent production of a premium low-ash, sub bituminous black coal with excellent combustion properties. The coal also has low sulphur content, generates low levels of noxious gases during combustion, and can be transported easily.

Owners

SourceSource
CompanyInterestOwnership
Yankuang Energy Group Co.Ltd. 100 % Indirect
Yancoal International (Holding) Co., Ltd is a wholly owned subsidiary of Yankuang Energy Group Company Limited (Yankuang Group) and controls the subsidiarie Premier Coal Ltd. Premier Coal is managed by Yancoal on behalf of its majority shareholder, Yankuang Group.

In 2021 Yanzhou Coal Mining Company Limited (“Yanzhou”) completed a change of name to Yankuang Energy Group Company Limited (“Yankuang Energy”).

Contractors

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Deposit type

  • Sedimentary

Summary:

The Collie Basin is a northwest to southeast trending, elongated rift structure bounded to a large degree by major faults, with a maximum throw possibly in excess of 2,000m. The basin is thus subdivided into three depressions, namely the Cardiff, Muja and Shotts Sub-basins.

The coal-bearing sequence, of Sakmarian to late Permian age, is approximately 1,200m thick and is confined by Archaean rocks dominated by granite and granite-gneiss.

The Permian sequence commences with glacial deposits and then contains three main coal-bearing members in which coal comprises less than 5% of the material. Mining at Premier would be confined to the Premier Member (equivalent to the Chicken Creek and Collieburn Members) which has 15 major seams (greater than 2.Om thick) and numerous smaller seams and seam splits.

Interburden is dominated by fine to very coarse-grained, porous sandstones with lesser interbeds of siltstone and shale. The sequence is variably overlaid by the Cretaceousaged Nakina Formation which contains reworked Permian sediments. The high proportion of sandstone in the sequence makes the Collie Basin a major reservoir of groundwater.

The Premier Deposit is essentially a broad, shallow basin with dips of between 30 and - 80. Only minor internal faulting is known with throws up to 20m recorded.

There are three types of coal occurrences (Baarda, 1966):
• Trace coal (laminae) and carbonized black and lignitic brown plant fragments.
• A ‘coal zone’ consisting of interbedded and interlaminated coal and clay with occasional, relatively uninterrupted seams of coal up to 0.9 m thick. This coal is mainly black, finely laminated and the thickness of this zone varies; however, the thickest occurrence is 7 m.
• A seam 0.9 – 2 m thick with only minor clay. This coal is mostly black, hard, sub-bituminous and high ash with a conchoidal fracture and a well-developed cleat (Baarda, 1966).

Premier reported dips of up to 6° and a relative density of 1.45 for the Paradise core samples (Baarda, 1966). The high sulfur is due to the presence of pyrite and marcasite (Piggot, 2009).

Reserves

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Mining Methods

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Comminution

Crushers and Mills

Milling equipment has not been reported.

Processing

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Production

CommodityUnits202320222021202020192018201720162015
Coal (thermal) Mt  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe5.6*5.9*6.5*6*6.4*
All production numbers are expressed as clean coal. * Combined production for Cameby Downs Mine and Premier Mine

Operational metrics

Metrics202320222021202020162015
Coal tonnes mined  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe4.2 Mt4.8 Mt
Raw coal annual capacity  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe

Production Costs

Commodity production costs have not been reported.

Heavy Mobile Equipment

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Personnel

Mine Management

Job TitleNamePhoneEmailProfileRef. Date
....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required Subscription required Apr 29, 2024
....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required ........... Subscription required ........... Subscription required Subscription required Apr 29, 2024
....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required Subscription required Apr 29, 2024
....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required Subscription required Apr 29, 2024

Total WorkforceYear
...... Subscription required 2022
...... Subscription required 2021
...... Subscription required 2020

Aerial view:

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