Appin Coal Mine

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

Location

Table 1: Project-level location details

Mine Name	Location	Coordinates (WGS 84)
Appin Coal Mine	Appin, New South Wales, Australia	-34.211194, 150.792736 (exact)

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

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Project Details

Table 2: Project status

Status	Status Detail	Opening Year	Closing Year
Operating	–	1962	–

Table 3: Operation details

Capacity (Mtpa)	Production (Mtpa)	Year of Production	Mine Type	Mining Method	Mine Size (km2)	Mine Depth (m)	Workforce Size
–	3.9	2022	Underground	Longwall	–	550	875

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
113	–	774	Southern	Bituminous	Met	Port Kembla Coal Terminal

Table 5: Ownership and parent company

Owner	Parent Company	Headquarters
Illawarra Coal	South32 Ltd [100.0%]	Australia

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

ROM or Saleable	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021	2022	2023
ROM	3	1	3	3	4	4	3

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

Background

The Appin mine is an underground metallurgical coal mine owned and operated by Illawarra Coal, a wholly-owned subsidiary of South32, in Appin, New South Wales, Australia.

It consists of several merged mine sites, including the original Appin Mine (now known as "Appin East Colliery"), the former West Cliff Colliery (now known as "Appin North Colliery"), and the former Tower Colliery (now known as "Appin West Colliery"). The original Appin Colliery (now known as "Appin East") is located adjacent to Appin Village, approximately 37 kilometers northwest of Wollongong, NSW, Australia. As of 2023, the mine is owned and operated by Illawarra Coal -- a subsidiary of South32, which in turn, is spun off from BHP, which reverted from BHP Billiton back to BHP in November 2018.

Appin Mine, Cordeaux Colliery, and Dendrobium Mine collectively operate as South32's Illawarra Metallurgical Coal (IMC).

Today, Appin Mine consists of the merged Appin (now known as "Appin East Colliery") and Tower Collieries (now known as "Appin West Colliery").

Coal from these active pits is exported via Port Kembla Coal Terminal, which IMC has a 16.7% ownership interest. Once exported, it is sold to North Asia, India, Europe and the emerging market of South East Asia, as well as domestic sales to steel mills.

Appin Mine extracts coal from the Bulli Seam of the Southern Coalfield. In June 2019, Illawara Coal estimated that a 19-year reserve of coal existed at Appin.

In November 2022, PIMS Mining (a PIMS Group subsidiary) was awarded a three-year fixed term contract with South32’s Illawarra Coal Holdings Pty Ltd, for the purpose of continuing to provide supplementary labour, longwall, outbye and coal clearance processes to the Appin coal mine.

Mine Expansion

In September 2018, the expansion of the Bulli seam was approved which enables the company to open several underground longwall areas and upgrade the existing West Cliffe washery.

Health & Safety

At 11:00pm on July 24, 1979 methane gas exploded underground at the Appin coal mine on the south-west fringe of Sydney, killing 14 men. The mining company was found guilty of negligence during a subsequent inquest.

In June 2017, South32 withdrew the workforce from its Appin mine as a precautionary measure against a gas leak. Workers returned to one of the longwall faces in October that year, but full production didn't resume until 2020.

• Operator: PIMS Mining
• Owner: Illawarra Coal
• Location: Appin, New South Wales, Australia
• GPS Coordinates: -34.211194,150.792736 (exact; mine's main pit)
• Status: Operating
• Production: 4.7 Mtpa (2022)
• Total Resource: 774 million tonnes (2022; Bulli Coal Seam)
• Mineable Reserves: 113 million tonnes (2022; Bulli Coal Seam)
• Coal Type: Hard coking coal (Metallurgical)
• Mine Size:
• Mine Type: Underground, longwall mining
• Mine Depth: 500 m
• Start Year: 1962
• Source of Financing:

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.