Ensham Coal Mine

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Ensham Coal Mine is an operating coal mine in Emerald, Queensland, Australia.

Location

Table 1: Project-level location details

Mine Name	Location	Coordinates (WGS 84)
Ensham Coal Mine	Emerald, Queensland, Australia	-23.454464, 148.497455 (exact)

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

Loading map...

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Project Details

Table 2: Project status

Status	Status Detail	Opening Year	Closing Year
Operating	–	1993	–

Table 3: Operation details

Capacity (Mtpa)	Production (Mtpa)	Year of Production	Mine Type	Mining Method	Mine Size (km2)	Mine Depth (m)	Workforce Size
12	3.91	2022	Underground & Surface	Mixed	27.37	210	600

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
724	–	1477	Bowen	Subbituminous	Thermal	Port of Gladstone

Table 5: Ownership and parent company

Owner	Parent Company	Headquarters
Sungela	Thungela Resources Australia [85%]; LX International [15%]	Australia, South Korea

Expansion/Extension

Table 6: 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	Extension	–	–	–

Note: The above section was automatically generated and is based on data from the GEM April 2024 Global Coal Mine Tracker dataset.

Background

The Ensham mine is an open-cut and underground coal mine located near Emerald, Queensland, Australia. 

In February 2023, previous owner Idemitsu Australia, sold its stake in the Ensham coal mine to Sungela Pty Ltd — a consortium of Thungela Resources Limited (75%), Mayfair Corporations Group Pty Ltd (12.5%) and Audley Energy Limited (12.5%). The mine is a joint venture of Sungela and Bowen Investment (Australia), with Sungela holding the majority of shares. Open cut mining began at Ensham in 1993, and in 2011, the operation began underground mining as well. Historically, the mine has produced great quantities of coal per year — as of 2009, the mine had produced over 80 million tonnes of coal. By some estimations, over a billion tonnes in total resource still remain at the Ensham mine. However, an estimate of the mine’s recoverable reserves was not available.

Throughout the mine’s history, annual production has varied between 8 million tonnes of coal per year and 5 million tonnes of coal per year. Before the early 2010s, production was higher, but falling coal prices caused the company to downsize its operations.

In February 2007, an expansion of the existing Ensham open-cut coal mine (aka, the "Ensham Central Project") was approved by the Queensland Government.

According to an ABC News report, mining is scheduled to take place at Ensham mine until 2028. The report also points out that Ensham Mine was one of the first large open-cut mines subject to new legislation that requires miners to rehabilitate land progressively as they mine.

The coal is transported from the stockpiles using large road trains to the coal plant where it is crushed and screened for size and then transported via rail to Gladstone Port for shipping and to Gladstone Power Station for domestic electricity generation.

• Operator: Sungela Pty Ltd.
• Owners: Sungela Pty Ltd (85%), Bowen Investment (Australia) Pty Ltd (15%)
• Location: 40 km north-east of Emerald, Queensland, Australia
• GPS Coordinates: -23.454464, 148.497455 (exact)
• Status: Operating
• Production: 2.91 mtpa (2022)
• Total Resource: 1,477 million tonnes (as of 2003)
• Mineable Reserves: 724 million tonnes
• Coal Type: Thermal coal
• Mine Size:
• Mine Type: Open cut (dragline operation) & underground (bord and pillar operation)
• Start Year: 1993
• Source of Financing:

Extension

In 2021, Ensham proposed to increase the life of its existing underground operations by extending the underground bord and pillar mine into a 2,737 hectare-area located approximately 200 kilometers west of Rockhampton and 35 km east of Emerald. The project, known as the Ensham Life of Mine Extension Project, would extend the life of Ensham Mine's underground operations by up to nine years (that is, to approximately 2037), with underground decommissioning/rehabilitation expected to be completed by 2039.

As of July 2023, the Queensland Government has approved this extension.

Articles and Resources

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.