Metropolitan Coal Mine

This article is part of the Global Coal Mine Tracker, a project of Global Energy Monitor.

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

Location

Table 1: Project-level location details

Mine Name	Location	Coordinates (WGS 84)
Metropolitan Coal Mine	Helensburgh, New South Wales, Australia	-34.184912, 150.996569 (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	–	1888	2032 (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
3.2	2.2	2024	Underground	Longwall	–	500.0*	300.0

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
10.0	2022	17.0	–	Bituminous	Met	–

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
Metropolitan Collieries Pty Ltd	Peabody Energy Corp [100.0%]	USA

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

ROM or Saleable	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021	2022	2023	2024	2025
ROM	1.37	2.02	1.85	1.28	1.13	2.05	2.2	2.2	–

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 7: 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
21.778	1807.598	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 Metropolitan Mine is an underground coal mine, operated by Peabody Energy, in Helensburgh, in the Southern Coalfields of New South Wales, Australia. . In 2009 Peabody Energy Australia's subsidiary, Helensburgh Coal, gained approval for the expansion of the mine as part of theMetropolitan Coal Project. Peabody Energy owns the mine and ramped up production 2 million tons (1.4 million tonnes) of hard and semi-hard coking coal. About 90 percent of Metropolitan's coal is exported through Port Kembla to major steel manufacturers and industrial consumers in Japan, India, Brazil, and Germany. The remaining coking coal is trucked to domestic steel producers.

• Owner: Peabody Energy Australia
• Parent company: Peabody Energy
• Location: Helensburgh, New South Wales, Australia
• Coordinates:-34.184912, 150.996569
• Production: 1 million short tons
• Type of coal: Metallurgic
• Mineable Reserves: 16 million tonnes (Proven and Probable Reserve, 2020)
• Mine type: Underground
• Mining method: Longwall
• Number of employees:
• Recoverable Reserves: 63 million tons

Workers Rally

In July 2025, it was reported that more than 100 workers and their supporters rallied outside Peabody’s Metropolitan coal mine in Helensburgh, NSW, as a lockout over enterprise bargaining and wage disputes entered its third week, with the Mining and Energy Union and the company meeting with the Fair Work Commissioner to seek a resolution.

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
M1345.B1	mine boundary	underground	Metropolitan mine boundary	extracted	2022-03-31 00:00:00
M1345.P1	ventilation system	shaft	ventilation shaft number 1 (disused)	extracted	March 29 2019 and Dec 28 2021 (satellite)
M1345.P2	ventilation system	shaft	ventilation shaft number 2	extracted	March 29 2019 and Dec 28 2021 (satellite)
M1345.P3	ventilation system	shaft	ventilation shaft number 3	extracted	March 31 2022 and April 30 2023 (satellite)

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

Coal mine boundaries and methane sources were last researched for this mine on Mar 20, 2025

ID	Notes
M1345.B1	The mining leases for the mine are listed in Table 1 on page 1 of the Metropolitan Coal 2022 Annual Review, https://web.archive.org/web/20240809012200/https://www.peabodyenergy.com/Peabody/media/MediaLibrary/Operations/Australia%20Mining/New%20South%20Wales%20Mining/Metropolitan%20Mine/Metropolitan-Coal-2022-Annual-Review.pdf, March 31 2023. The mining lease boundary is shown in Figure 1 on the 151st page. The extracted boundary includes mining leases ML1610, ML1702, CCL703, MPL320, and CL379, and excludes the exploration license 9364. The area of the boundary is 63 square kilometers.
M1345.P1	Figure 2 on the 156th page of the METROPOLITAN COAL 2018 ANNUAL REVIEW , https://web.archive.org/web/20240809012349/https://www.peabodyenergy.com/Peabody/media/MediaLibrary/Operations/Australia%20Mining/New%20South%20Wales%20Mining/Metropolitan%20Mine/1-Metropolitan-Coal-2018-Annual-Review_1.pdf, March 29, 2019, shows locations of ventilation shafts no. 1 (disused) and 2. Visually checked against Google Earth Pro satellite imagery.
M1345.P2	Figure 2 on the 156th page of the METROPOLITAN COAL 2018 ANNUAL REVIEW , https://web.archive.org/web/20240809012349/https://www.peabodyenergy.com/Peabody/media/MediaLibrary/Operations/Australia%20Mining/New%20South%20Wales%20Mining/Metropolitan%20Mine/1-Metropolitan-Coal-2018-Annual-Review_1.pdf, March 29, 2019, shows locations of ventilation shafts no. 1 (disused) and 2. Visually checked against Google Earth Pro satellite imagery.
M1345.P3	Figure 1 Metropolitan Coal Longwall Layout on the 151st page of the Metropolitan Coal 2022 Annual Review, https://web.archive.org/web/20240809012200/https://www.peabodyenergy.com/Peabody/media/MediaLibrary/Operations/Australia%20Mining/New%20South%20Wales%20Mining/Metropolitan%20Mine/Metropolitan-Coal-2022-Annual-Review.pdf, March 31 2023, shows the location of ventilation shaft 3. Visually checked against Google Earth Pro satellite imagery.

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.