Appin mine
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The Appin mine is an underground metallurgical coal mine owned and operated by Illawarra Coal, a wholly-owned subsidiary of South32, in Appin, New South Wales, Australia.
It consists of several merged mine sites, including the original Appin Mine (now known as "Appin East Colliery"), the former West Cliff Colliery (now known as "Appin North Colliery"), and the former Tower Colliery (now known as "Appin West Colliery").[1]
Location
The satellite image below shows the exact location of the main Appin Mine site (also known as Appin East Colliery) in NSW, Australia.
The satellite image below shows the exact location of the Appin North Colliery (formerly, West Cliff Colliery) site in NSW, Australia.
The satellite image below shows the exact location of the Appin West Colliery (formerly Tower Colliery) site in NSW, Australia.
Background
The original Appin Colliery (now known as "Appin East") is located adjacent to Appin Village, approximately 37 kilometers northwest of Wollongong, NSW, Australia.[1] As of 2023, the mine is owned and operated by Illawarra Coal -- a subsidiary of South32, which in turn, is spun off from BHP, which reverted from BHP Billiton back to BHP in November 2018.[2]
Appin Mine, Cordeaux Colliery, and Dendrobium Mine collectively operate as South32's Illawarra Metallurgical Coal (IMC).[1]
Today, Appin Mine consists of the merged Appin (now known as "Appin East Colliery") and Tower Collieries (now known as "Appin West Colliery").[1]
Coal from these active pits is exported via Port Kembla Coal Terminal, which IMC has a 16.7% ownership interest.[3][4] Once exported, it is sold to North Asia, India, Europe and the emerging market of South East Asia, as well as domestic sales to steel mills.[5]
Appin Mine extracts coal from the Bulli Seam of the Southern Coalfield.[1] In June 2019, Illawara Coal estimated that a 19-year reserve of coal existed at Appin.[6]
In November 2022, PIMS Mining (a PIMS Group subsidiary) was awarded a three-year fixed term contract with South32’s Illawarra Coal Holdings Pty Ltd, for the purpose of continuing to provide supplementary labour, longwall, outbye and coal clearance processes to the Appin coal mine.[7]
Mine Expansion
In September 2018, the expansion of the Bulli seam was approved which enables the company to open several underground longwall areas and upgrade the existing West Cliffe washery.[8]
Health & Safety
At 11:00pm on July 24, 1979 methane gas exploded underground at the Appin coal mine on the south-west fringe of Sydney, killing 14 men. The mining company was found guilty of negligence during a subsequent inquest.[9]
In June 2017, South32 withdrew the workforce from its Appin mine as a precautionary measure against a gas leak.[10] Workers returned to one of the longwall faces in October that year, but full production didn't resume until 2020.[4]
Mine Details
- Operator: PIMS Mining[11]
- Owner: Illawarra Coal[12]
- Location: Appin, New South Wales, Australia
- GPS Coordinates: -34.211194,150.792736 (exact; mine's main pit)
- Status: Operating
- Production: 4.7 Mtpa (2022)[1]
- Total Resource: 774 million tonnes (2022; Bulli Coal Seam)[13]
- Mineable Reserves: 113 million tonnes (2022; Bulli Coal Seam)[13]
- Coal Type: Hard coking coal (Metallurgical)
- Mine Size:
- Mine Type: Underground, longwall mining[6]
- Mine Depth: 500 m[14]
- Start Year: 1962[1]
- Source of Financing:
Articles and Resources
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 Appin Mine Annual Review FY2022, South 32 Illawarra Metallurgical Coal, 27 Sept. 2022.
- ↑ BHP Billiton "BHP Billiton entities change names", 21 November 2018.
- ↑ South32, "Illawarra Metallurgical Coal Site Tour", pdf, slide 14, 20 June 2019.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 South32, "Illawarra Metallurgical Coal Site Tour", pdf, slide 8, 20 June 2019.
- ↑ South32, "Illawarra Metallurgical Coal Site Tour", pdf, slide 13, 20 June 2019.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 South32, "Illawarra Metallurgical Coal Site Tour", pdf, slide 4, 20 June 2019.
- ↑ Daniel Gleeson, "PIMS Mining gains more work in NSW coal sector with Appin and Maxwell agreements", International Mining, 22 Nov, 2022.
- ↑ Department of Environment and Energy, "How BHP Billiton's debt decision set South32 free", Australian Government, 20 September 2018.
- ↑ Nick Rheinberger and Caitlin Dugan, "Appin coal mine explosion still felt 40 years after 14 miners were killed", ABC news, 23 July 2019.
- ↑ Alliance News, "South32 Warns Of "Extended Outage" At Appin Mine In Australia", Morning Star, 10 July 2018.
- ↑ Daniel Gleeson, "PIMS Mining gains more work in NSW coal sector with Appin and Maxwell agreements", International Mining, 22 Nov, 2022.
- ↑ South32, "Illawarra Metallurgical Coal Site Tour", pdf, page 1, 20 June 2019.
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 South32 Annual Report 2022, South32, 9 Sept. 2022.
- ↑ Appin Colliery, Illawarra Coal website, accessed September 2020
