New Acland Coal Mine

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New Acland Coal Mine is an operating coal mine in Oakey, Queensland, Australia.

Location

Table 1: Project-level location details

Mine Name	Location	Coordinates (WGS 84)
New Acland Coal Mine	Oakey, Queensland, Australia	-27.278281, 151.710176 (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	–	2002	–

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
4	0.978	2022	Surface	Open Pit	–	50*	128*

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
366	2023	494	Clarence-Moreton	Subbituminous	Thermal	Tarong power station

Table 5: Ownership and parent company

Owner	Parent Company	Headquarters
New Acland Coal Pty Limited	New Hope Corp Ltd [100.0%]	Australia

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	–	2	–

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

New Acland Mine is an open-cut coal mine owned by New Hope Coal in Queensland, Australia.

Mining at the New Acland site stopped on November 26, 2021, when coal reserves were exhausted. As New Hope reports in their 2022 annual review, the main New Acland site has transitioned into care and maintenance and plans to reopen once final approvals are granted for the mine's extension project—the New Acland Coal Mine Stage 3 Project.

As of May 2023, a water license for New Acland's Stage 3 expansion has been approved, and clearing and topsoil removal has commenced. New Hope Group commenced operating the New Acland mine, located north-northwest of the Oakey Township in southeast Queensland’s Darling Downs region, in 2002. Stage 2 of the mine was implemented in 2008.

In its 2009 Annual Report, New Hope Corporation states that it produced 4.263 million tonnes of coal from the mine during the year. "New Acland has completed the initial development of a second open cut pit south of the current operations to maximise coal qualities and operating flexibility. First coal from this southern pit was processed in mid-September 2008," the report states.

New Hope states that coal from the mine is intended for exports and domestic use at power stations in South East Queensland.

New Acland previously supplied coal to the Tarong power station and to both domestic and international markets. It is unclear if the mine will again feed the coal plant once operations reopen. (Currently, the Tarong coal plant receives coal from the nearby Meandu mine.)

• Operator: New Acland Coal Pty Ltd
• Owner: New Hope Group
• Location: 14km north west of Oakey in the Darling Downs region of Queensland
• GPS Coordinates: -27.278281, 151.710176 (exact, within the mining complex)
• Status: Care and maintenance
• Production: 0.47 million tonnes per annum (2022)
• Total Resource: 494 million tonnes (2022)
• Mineable Reserves: 366 million tonnes (2022)
• Coal Type: Thermal
• Mine Size:
• Mine Type: Surface
• Start Year: 2002
• Source of Financing: ANZ, NAB and other lenders have supported the Stage 3 expansion

Stage 3 Expansion Project

Originally, the New Acland Stage 3 project was meant to increase production up to 10.0 million tonnes per annum (mtpa), cover an area of 5,069 hectares, and extend the mine life by about 30 years. However, due to the level of controversy surrounding the expansion, its plans have been trimmed over the years and now aim to expand New Acland's production capacity to 7.5 mtpa and extend its production life by 12 years.

With coal having been depleted since November 2021, the future of the mine ultimately relies on approval of the New Acland Stage 3 Project.

Approval Delays

The Stage 3 expansion of the mine has been mired in controversy, largely due to the effect it would have on neighbouring farmers. A detailed description of the legal process is found on the Environmental Law Australia website.

The application was refused in 2017 because of the operation's potential impact on groundwater. "The decision means that the case is now expected to be re-heard in its entirety, although today’s [10 September 2019] decision means the Land Court will not be able to consider the mine’s impact on the precious groundwater that supplies the prime agricultural land of the region as part of evaluating the positive and negative impacts of the proposal."

After several court cases, in September 2019, the Queensland Court of Appeal ruled the Land Court did not have the power to consider groundwater impacts from mining. This was the argument that Oakley Coal Action Alliance used to stop the mine from expanding prior to this date. As of September 2019, the Queensland government is still to rule on its pending water licence for the project.

Oakey Coal Action Alliance secretary Paul King said the project should never have been allowed to proceed due to the harm it would inflict on local farmers, the environment, and the Oakey economy.

"This is a very difficult outcome for local farmers who have lived with this threat for ten long years and now face more uncertainty due to this technicality, while they struggle with a worsening drought and reduced groundwater supply," he said.

"The farming land around Oakey is classed in the top 1.5% in Queensland. It is madness that it should be destroyed for the sake of a temporary coal mine.

The uncertainty surrounding the mine expansion threatens the existing workers on the site. Redundancy procedures were triggered on 2 September 2019, as the expansion had not been approved.

Following his election to parliament and appointment as Premier in early 2012, Campbell Newman announced that the government would not allow the New Hope Corporation to expand the New Acland mine, from 5 million tonnes a year to 10 million tonnes a year of thermal coal. The expansion of the mine, Newman stated, was "inappropriate". A spokeswoman for the Liberal National Party (LNP) told The Australian that "the LNP don't support open-cut coalmining on strategic cropping land anywhere in the state ... The LNP will not support the proposal for Acland stage three (because) it covers some areas of strategic cropping land, and would come too close to local communities."

Despite the rebuff, a spokesman for New Hope said that "we will continue to work with the new LNP government" but would not say whether they aimed to gain approval for an amended proposal. In its April 2012 quarterly activities report for the quarter, New Hope stated only that "submission of the supplementary EIS has been delayed from the planned submission date of mid April 2012 due to ongoing discussions being held with the new Co-ordinator General."

New Hope Coal has pushed for stage 3 expansion since early 2012 and finally received federal approval for the expansion on December 1, 2020.

Controversy

The company was accused of illegal mining in 2018 and noncompliance with its license. The investigation was still ongoing in June 2020.

Financing

According to research from Australian environmental group Market Forces, in December 2018 the Australian commercial banks ANZ and NAB were among lenders that provided AUS$600 million to New Hope Coal for purposes including the proposed New Acland Stage 3 coal mine. The deal was shrouded in secrecy, as New Hope’s CEO declined to publicly identify the lenders. Market Forces point out that NAB's involvement in the funding for New Acland Stage 3 contradicts its commitment to no longer finance new thermal coal mines or extensions.

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.