Vulcan Coal Mine Complex

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

Download full dataset

Report an error

Sub-articles:

Global coal mines Coal mines in China Coal mines in India Coal mines in the United States Coal mines in Australia Coal mines in Russia Coal mines in Indonesia

Related-articles:

Largest coal mines in the world Coal mine impacts from Covid-19 Environmental issues of coal Coal mining Coal reserves Coal terminals

Vulcan Coal Mine Complex is an operating coal mine in Dysart, Queensland, Australia.

Location

Table 1: Project-level location details

Mine Name	Location	Coordinates (WGS 84)
Vulcan Coal Mine Complex	Dysart, Queensland, Australia	-22.310714, 148.185988 (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	–	2022	–

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
1.5	1.293	2024	Surface	Open Pit	–	60.0*	464*

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
–	–	–	Bowen	Bituminous	Met	Hay Point Coal Terminal

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
Vitrinite [100%]	Vitrinite [100%]	Australia

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

ROM or Saleable	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021	2022	2023
ROM	–	–	–	–	–	0.91	1.43

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	Expansion	–	1.734	–

Note: The above section was automatically generated and is based on data from the Global Coal Mine Tracker May 2025 release.

Ownership Tree

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

Background

The Vulcan Coal Mine Complex is a proposed surface coking coal mine in the on the western flank of the Bowen Basin, Queensland, Australia.

Coal would be exported via the Hay Point Coal Terminal and on the Blair Athol Mine Branch and Peak Downs Branch on Tennement Railroads. The mine received permitting approval on May 9th, 2022.

• Operator: Vitrinite
• Owner:
• Location: Dysart, Queensland, Australia
• GPS Coordinates: -22.310714, 148.185988 (exact)
• Status: Proposed
• Production Capacity: 1.9 mtpa
• Total Resource:
• Mineable Reserves:
• Coal Type: Coking coal
• Mine Size:
• Mine Type: Opencast
• Start Year: TBD
• Source of Financing:

Environmental Controversy

In November 2022, the Vulcan South coal mine project gained publicity for being one of several projects located in Great Barrier Reef catchments and floodplains that was exempted from needing an environmental impact statement (EIS) by the Queensland government because it is proposed it would produce less than two million tonnes of coal a year. Without an EIS, the public could be excluded from providing comments on the project's terms of reference. This would instead leave the mining company to largely define what issues they address in their environmental assessments.

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
M3017.B1	mine boundary	surface	Vulcan Coal Mine Complex boundary	extracted	2025-09-02 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 Nov 14, 2025

ID

Notes

M3017.B1

The mining leases for the mine are listed and shown in a diagram on the Vitrinite's Vulcan Mine website https://web.archive.org/web/20250423232119/https://vitrinite.com.au/community/assets/vulcan-mine, last modified November 28 2023. The complex includes two adjacent mining leases: ML 700060 Vulcan Mine and ML 700023 Vulcan South extension which is summarized on page 1 of Advice to decision maker on coal mining project IESC 2024-149: Vulcan South Coal Mine Project (EPBC 2023/09708) – Expansion, May 13 2024, https://web.archive.org/web/20250315061603/https://www.iesc.gov.au/sites/default/files/2024-07/iesc-advice-vulcan-south-coal-mine-2024-149.pdf. The boundary is the outer perimeter of the two mining lease geometries, which were extracted from the Queensland Mining Leases dataset, last updated Sep 2 2025, https://web.archive.org/web/2/https://www.data.qld.gov.au/dataset/queensland-mining-and-exploration-tenure-series/resource/f87794b8-7b9a-4732-89bb-56ccb2228d27. The area of the boundary is approximately 42 sq km.

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.