Boggabri Coal Mine

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Boggabri Coal Mine is an operating coal mine in Boggabri, New South Wales, Australia.

Location

Table 1: Project-level location details

Mine Name	Location	Coordinates (WGS 84)
Boggabri Coal Mine	Boggabri, New South Wales, Australia	-30.6116182, 150.1550389 (exact)

The map below shows the exact location of the coal mine:

Project Details

Table 2: Project status

Status	Status Detail	Opening Year	Closing Year
Operating	–	2006	2036 (planned)

Table 3: Operation details

Note: The asterisk (*) signifies that the value is a GEM estimated figure.

Capacity (Mtpa)	Production (Mtpa)	Year of Production	Mine Type	Mining Method	Mine Size (km2)	Mine Depth (m)	Workforce Size
8.6	8.6	2024	Surface	Open Pit	20.56	60.0*	805.0

Table 4: Coal resources and destination

Total Reserves (Mt)	Year of Total Reserves Recorded	Total Resources (Mt)	Coalfield	Coal Type	Coal Grade	Primary Consumer/ Destination
–	–	–	Gunnedah	Bituminous	Thermal & Met	Terminal (Export)

Table 5: Ownership and parent company

Note: To access more comprehensive data on energy ownership, please visit the Global Energy Ownership Tracker.

Owner	Parent Company	Headquarters
Idemitsu Australia Ply via its subsidiary company Boggabri Coal Ply Ltd [80%]; Chugoku Electric Power Australia Resources Pty Ltd [10%]; NS Boggabri Pty Ltd [10%]	Idemitsu Kosan Co Ltd; Nippon Steel Corp [10.0%]; Chugoku Electric Power Australia Resources Pty Ltd [10.0%]	Japan, Australia

Table 6: Historical production (unit: million tonnes per annum)

ROM or Saleable	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021	2022	2023	2024	2025
ROM	–	7.9	7.4	7.5	7.6	6.8	8.07	8.6	–

Expansion/Extension

Table 7: Project status

* Added capacity of a coal mine refers to the enhancement in the mine's production capabilities beyond its initial production capacity.

Status	Status Detail	Project Type	Project Phase	Added Capacity (Mtpa)*	Start Year
Proposed	Permitted	Expansion	–	0.5	2029 (planned)

Reported Methane Emissions Data

Global Energy Monitor collates facility-scale methane emissions data reported by government and company sources collected in a systematic fashion. This mine is associated with the following methane emissions reports:

Table 8: Methane emissions

Reported Coal Mine Methane Emissions (thousand tonnes CO2 equivalent)	Reported Coal Mine Methane Emissions (thousand tonnes CH4)	Year of Reported Coal Mine Methane Emissions	Reported Coal Mine Methane Emissions (thousand tonnes) Reference	Reference type
–	–	–	​	–
0.023	1.918	2024-25	​	national government data

Note: The above sections were automatically generated and are based on data from the Global Coal Mine Tracker May 2026 release.

Ownership Tree

This ownership tree is part of the Global Energy Ownership Tracker, a project of Global Energy Monitor.

Background

The Boggabri coal mine is an open-cut coal mine located 17 kilometers north-east of Boggabri in New South Wales, Australia. It is operated by Boggabri Coal Pty Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of Idemitsu Australia Resources Pty Ltd. The Boggabri mine was granted approval in 1989, and operations commenced in 2006. Idemitsu, its current owner, took full control of the project in 1992. Chugoku Electric Power Australia Resources Pty Ltd acquired 10% of interest in the project in August 2014, in part to ensure that the company’s power plants would have a stable source of fuel. NS Boggabri Pty Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Australia Pty Limited, acquired 10% interest in the mine in 2015.

In 2012, the NSW Government granted approval for the Boggabri Coal Expansion Project to raise the original footprint of the Boggabri mine by 658 hectares and to increase its rate of production from 5 million tonnes/year to 8.6 million tonnes/year. Additionally, it expanded the life of the mine to December 2033. The government also approved the construction of a new Coal Handling and Preparation Plant (CHPP) and the construction of a 17 km rail spur line and rail load-out facility.

After it is mined, coal is processed through the on-site coal handling and preparation plant and then transported to the Port of Newcastle for international export.

• Operator: Boggabri Coal Operations Pty Ltd
• Owners: Idemitsu Australia Resources (80%), Chugoku Electric Power Australia Resources Pty Ltd (10%), NS Boggabri Pty Limited (10%)
• Location: 17 km north-east of Boggabri in the Gunnedah Basin, New South Wales, Australia
• GPS Coordinates: -30.6116182, 150.1550389
• Status: Operating
• Production: 5.3 million tonnes per annum (2022)
• Total Resource:
• Mineable Reserves:
• Coal Type: Semi-soft coking & PCI (pulverized coal injection) coal (Thermal & Metallurgical)
• Mine Size: 2056 hectares
• Mine Type: Open cut
• Start Year: 2006
• Source of Financing:

Expansion

As of 2021, Boggabri Coal Operations Pty Limited (BCOPL) is seeking to both expand and extend the Boggabri mine via its Boggabri Coal Mine Modification 8 Project. The project would increase the mine's current rate of coal extraction from the current rate of 8.6 million tonnes per annum (Mtpa) to a maximum of 9.1 Mtpa. If approved it will also increase the approved maximum depth of mining down to the Templemore Coal Seam to recover an additional 61.6 Million tonnes of Run of Mine (ROM) coal resource within the currently approved Mine Disturbance Boundary. This extension will result in a six-year extension to the Boggabri mine's life (that is, from the end of 2033 to the end of 2039).

As of April 2022, BCOPL received notification from the Department of Planning, Industry and Environment (DPE) that an amendment pathway was accepted and both the updated Response to Submissions Report and Amendment Report for the application is proposed to be lodged with DPE late 2022.

Public Controversy

The 2012 expansion project brought with it significant citizen backlash. Community members were concerned about that the project would destroy the adjacent Leard State Forest, and animal and plant species within it. The company’s own proposal for the expansion indicated that approximately 1,385 hectares of native vegetation would be impacted, including 624 hectares of Box-Gum Woodland which is listed under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 and Threatened Species Conservation Act 1995.

In addition, citizens brought up concerns about an inadequate rehabilitation plan, community fragmentation that would disproportionately hurt farmers, decreased air and groundwater quality, impacts to irrigation and the closure of an important access road.

In September 2012, multiple anti-mine actions were taken at Boggabri mine. Two activists climbed to the top of the mine’s coal crushing plant and hung up a banner that read “Stop the coal rush: protect health, water, climate.” Additionally, an 84-year-old man locked himself to the gates of the Boggabi coal mine to protest environmental damage that the mine expansion could cause in the Leard State Forest.

Boggabri has continued to propose modifications to the mine that have drawn community backlash. In 2016, they received approval to add two production bores and four contingency production bores to supply water for use in coal process and mining operations. Several public objections were made by nearby community members expressing concern about how the implementation of bores would impact the water supply for those who lived nearby.

“We are immediate neighbours to the East who rely greatly on underground water for stock and personal use,” wrote Jim Picton in a public submission about the proposed modification on NSW’s Department of Planning, Industry and Environment website. “90 percent of our water usage is from bores and wells and if we were to lose that capacity, our buisness would be become redundant, as we are sheep and cattle producers. … We need guarantees that these bores will not effect the capacity and production of the water supply that already exists.”

Project Expansion Details

• Status: Proposed
• Capacity: +0.5 million tonnes per annum (9.1 total for the mine)
• Mineable Reserves: 61 million tonnes
• Start Year: 2025
• Source of Financing:

Coal Mine Boundaries and Methane Sources

Global Energy Monitor researchers have identified coal mine boundary/boundaries and potential sources of coal mine methane (CMM) for this mine. These research results can be used to drive CMM attribution and mitigation efforts, particularly when combined with remotely sensed methane plume locations and mine ownership data. Explore the results with the embedded map at the top of this page by clicking on the mine boundary polygon or the CMM placemarkers to reveal more details. A detailed description of this research can be found in Coal Mine Boundaries and Methane Sources. This data is also available as a downloadable companion dataset to the Global Coal Mine Tracker and the Global Methane Emitters Tracker.

Table SMP1: Coal mine boundaries and methane sources data

ID	Mine feature category	Mine feature subcategory	Description	Coordinates precision	Data source date
M0014.B1	mine boundary	surface	Boggabri mine boundary	extracted	2024-07-01 00:00:00
M0014.P1	other	preparation plant	coal preparation plant	extracted	2023-11-01 00:00:00

Table SMP2: Coal mine boundaries and methane sources data (continued)

Coal mine boundaries and methane sources were last researched for this mine on Jul 21, 2025

ID	Notes
M0014.B1	The boundary is the Approved Mine Disturbance Boundary shown in Figure 1: Mine Site Location, in Appendix 2 Project Layout Plan, on page 44, of the Consolidated Consent July 2024, https://web.archive.org/web/2/https://idemitsu.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Consolidated-Consent-July-2024.pdf The area of the boundary is 18 sq km.
M0014.P1	Identified visually from Google Earth Pro satellite imagery.

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Additional data

To access additional data, including an interactive map of world coal mines, a downloadable dataset, and summary data, please visit the Global Coal Mine Tracker on the Global Energy Monitor website.