Ewington Coal Mine

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Ewington Coal Mine is an operating coal mine in Collie, Western Australia, Australia.

Location

Table 1: Project-level location details

Mine Name	Location	Coordinates (WGS 84)
Ewington Coal Mine	Collie, Western Australia, Australia	-33.3624, 116.25 (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	–	1996	2026 (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
2	–	–	Surface	Open Pit	–	60*	314*

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
60.8	–	–	Collie	Bituminous	Thermal & Met	Bluewaters power station

Table 5: Ownership and parent company

Owner	Parent Company	Headquarters
Griffin Coal Mining Company Pty Ltd	Lanco Resources Australia Pty Ltd [100.0%]	India, Australia

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

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

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

Ewington Coal Mine (also known as Griffin Coal Mine) is a surface coal mine located 10 kilometres east of Collie in Western Australia.

As of 2011, the mine was owned and operated by Griffin Coal, a subsidiary of Lanco Infratech Limited. However, Lanco (and Griffin Coal) have since entered into receivership. In June 2021, Griffin Coal invoked "force majeure" to suspend operations.

As of 2023, the mine's current ownership, status, and fate remain unclear; the mine appears to be mothballed. Ewington is an open cut coal mine with the Ewington 2 mine developed in 1996. The Ewington 1 mine was developed in 2009.

The Indian firm Lanco Infratech acquired the mine in 2011, but entered receivership in 2017. Despite this, Griffin Coal remained operational. However, in June 2021, Griffin Coal invoked "force majeure," using the excuse of "a very wet winter" to suspend operations.

The mine, which is now in the hands of Indian bank ICICI following the implosion of Lanco, is believed to have lost money almost every year since being acquired by Indian interests. In late-2022, it was reported that Griffin Coal owed over $1.4 billion to secured creditors through a trustee known as "Certane" which acts on behalf of an Indian banking syndicate led by ICICI Bank. (ICICI Bank has been the ultimate owner of Ewington Mine since Lanco Infratech hit the wall in 2017.)

In December 2022, the Western Australia Government reportedly offered $19.5 billion USD to continue operations in a bid to protect the state's electricity supply, but Griffin Coal has yet to accept the offer. A government official admitted that they would not ordinarily intervene in this manner, but noted that Griffin has a role to play in supporting a stable energy system while Western Australia continues to transition away from coal-fired power generation, and the government could not sit idly by while stability of Western Australia's energy system was at risk.

Griffin Coal supplies the Japanese-owned Bluewaters power station, which feeds into Western Australia's main electricity network, the South West Interconnected System (SWIS).

In November 2023, the mine has received another huge taxpayer-funded lifeline, to the tune of more than $200 million from the WA government. The Premier Roger Cook announced an extension of the WA government's financial support for the Griffin Coal mine until 2026 to avoid putting the Perth and South West electricity system at risk of blackouts.

• Operator: The Griffin Coal Mining Company Pty Ltd
• Owner: ICICI Bank
• Location: Collie, Western Australia
• GPS Coordinates: -33.361338,116.252589
• Status: Mothballed
• Production Capacity: 2 mtpa
• Total Resource: 1.2 billion tonnes
• Mineable Reserves: 60.8 million tonnes (1992)
• Coal Type: Bituminous (Met and Thermal)
• Mine Size:
• Mine Type: Surface
• Start Year: 1996
• 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.