The Wilpinjong mine is located in the western coalfields of NSW, Australia (approximately 48km north-east of Mudgee) and produces high-quality thermal coal for domestic and export markets. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Peabody Energy Australia part of the multinational Peabody Energy Corporation NYSE: BTU
The Wilpinjong Coal Mine comprises of an open cut and coal handling preparation plant. The open cut is a dozer, truck and shovel operation. It is arguably one of the lowest-cost coal mining operations in Australia.
The NSW Minister of Planning granted Project Approval 05-0021 under NSW’s Environmental and Assessment Act, 1979 in February 2006. Open-cut mining began in September 2006.
Wilpinjong resource is contained in the Ulan Coal which occurs in the lower part of the Late Permian Illawarra Coal Measures. The Ulan Coal is divided into two sections (upper and lower). The combined sections of the Ulan Coal are commonly named and herein referred to as the Ulan Seam.
It has delineated an in-situ coal resource in the order of 523 million tonnes (Mt), including an estimated total open-cut ROM coal reserve of approximately 251 Mt.
A 21-year mine plan was initially prepared on the basis of mining up to 13 Mtpa of ROM coal. That coal was expected to produce approximately 147 Mt of product coal for sale to domestic electricity generators and approximately 33 Mt of product coal to export.
The Wilpinjong mine resource has been identified by the NSW Government as a long-term source of coal for NSW electricity generators. It supplies domestic product to AGL (who operate 20 per cent of the total capacity of the National Electricity Market.
In addition to domestic supply, it exports coal to customers across the Asia Pacific region through Port Waratah Coal Services in Newcastle NSW.
530 employees according to Peabody Energy
It is located approximately 48 km from Mudgee in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Click here for further details
In 2018 defiant locals around the town of Wollar accused Peabody of destroying the local community following the purchase of most properties in the township. Peabody owns around 50 houses in the town with only a few town blocks remaining in private hands. Only a handful of residents have remained in the township. One local was quoted as saying “They’ve destroyed a community by buying everybody out so there’s hardly anyone left. And they didn’t replace it with anything.” Read more information
AMSJ has two notable mining safety incidents recorded. A worker collapsed in the administration lunchroom of the mine. Other workers responded immediately and began emergency procedures. The worker was unresponsive and died despite the efforts of his coworkers and ambulance officers to resuscitate him. The death was later found to be non-work-related. Read more
The second notable mining incident involved the collision between an excavator and an autonomous dozer in May 2019. AMSJ has the report available here
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