Premier Coal Mine

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

Location

Table 1: Project-level location details

Mine Name	Location	Coordinates (WGS 84)
Premier Coal Mine	Collie, Perth, Western Australia, Australia	-33.391728, 116.286509 (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	–	1996	–

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
–	2.8	2022	Surface	–	130	50*	485

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
21	2022	–	–	Subbituminous	Thermal & Met	–

Table 5: Ownership and parent company

Owner	Parent Company	Headquarters
Premier Coal Pty Ltd	Yancoal Australia Ltd [100%]	China

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

ROM or Saleable	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021	2022	2023
Saleable	–	–	–	3	3	2	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

The Premier mine is an open cut coal mine located near the town of Collie, Australia. The mine is owned and operated by Premier Coal, a subsidiary of Wesfarmers Resources Group which in turn is a part of the larger Wesfarmers company. In late September 2011 Wesfarmers Resources announced that it had agreed to sell its Premier mine to Austar Coal Mine Pty Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Yancoal Australia Limited (Yancoal) for $296.8 million.

Coal from the mine overwhelmingly supplies the domestic West Australian power station market. While the company states on its website that "export of raw coal has been minimal to date" it has been pointed out that demand for coal from the Collie Basin "is handicapped by its high moisture content."

2010 production

In its 2010 annual report Wesfarmers states that "total production of 3.5 million tonnes was up 26.0 per cent on last year and sales of 3.6 million tonnes were up 37.2 per cent. Premier Coal became sole supplier to Verve Energy from 1 July 2010 and continued to develop the Premier Power Sales business". The company states that the mine has 138 million tonnes of reserves, of which 111 million tonnes are proved and 27 million tonnes inferred. It also states that Premier’s reserve coal is on a 26.5 per cent moisture basis and that "an estimated 77 million tonnes of the reserves reported for Premier will be sold under pre-existing customer contracts, with the balance of 61 million tonnes (i.e. assumed non-committed component of the reserves) expected to be sold at, generally, higher average prices.". The company states that the coal resource for the mine is 535 million tonnes of which 365 is measured resources. However, the company notes that the moisture content of the coal is 25%.

On its website, Premier Coal states significantly higher production figures, presumably based on older data. It states that "total coal production from Collie is currently in the order of 6.5 million tonnes, with over 80% used for power generation and steam raising (Verve Energy and Worsley). The remaining coal is consumed in synthetic rutile production by Iluka Resources (Capel and Narngulu) and Tiwest (Chandala) and cement production (Cockburn Cement). Small quantities of coal are also used as a heat source by industry and nurseries."

The company also states that it is "the sole supplier of the Collie A power station (1-1.2 million tonnes per year) and also supplies nearly 2 million tonnes to Muja Power Station. Both of these are serviced by a conveyor from the mine site. Coal is also delivered by rail to Kwinana Power Station."

Since commencing operations in the 1950's the mine has, according to the company, "supplied approximately 90 million tonnes of coal".

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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.