1.2.2.1.25 Myuna Colliery

Myuna Colliery began mining at the site in 1982 (Centennial Coal, 2012c, 2012d). Myuna Colliery has been owned and operated by Centennial Coal since 2002 when it was acquired from Powercoal (Centennial Coal, 2012c, 2012d). An application was submitted in 2010 to continue mining by extending the consent within the lease area. The application was approved in 2012 to continue for a further 21 years to 31 December 2032 (Centennial Coal, 2011, p. 1; Centennial Coal 2012c).

Myuna is located in Wangi Wangi, Lake Macquarie, in the Newcastle Coalfields, near Toronto and 25 km south-west of Newcastle, NSW (Centennial Coal, 2011, p. 1; Centennial Coal, 2012c). Mining Lease (ML) 1370 provides the rights to mine coal resources at the site and covers approximately 653 ha; CCL 762 (title for coal mining purposes) covers approximately 10,820 ha (Centennial Coal, 2012d, p. 2-3). An increase of ROM coal extraction from 2 to 3 Mt/year was agreed on 27 February 2015 (NSW Department of Planning and Infrastructure, 2015a, 2015b). At this mine, thermal coal is extracted and is used in the domestic market (Centennial Coal, 2012c). The mine is an underground operation using bord-and-pillar methods (Centennial Coal, 2011, p. 1; Centennial Coal, 2012c). Remaining coal reserves in 2012 were reported as 17.2 Mt (Centennial Coal, 2012c), with 338.2 Mt of total resources reported in the OZMIN database.

The site has a dedicated overland coal conveyor to Eraring Power Station and on-site coal crushing plant (Centennial Coal, 2012). The main targets for extraction are the Wallarah, Great Northern and Fassifern coal seams (Centennial Coal, 2011, p. 1; Centennial Coal, 2012c). The Fassifern seam is approximately 140 m below surface; the Great Northern Seam is approximately 120 m deep and the Wallarah coal seam is about 80 m deep (AECOM, 2011b, p. 37, see Figure 6.1 for stratigraphy). Annual average total potable water demand (2005 to 2010) is 118 ML/year (GHD, 2013, p. 21). Clean and dirty surface water is separated onsite through a series of diversions away from clean and dirty catchments. Water underground is diverted into other underground areas where it is allowed to settle and then siphoned to surface storage for further settling before discharging (AECOM, 2011b, p. 29, p. 30). Water is supplied from the Hunter Water Corporation Potable Supply for the bathhouse, administration and supply store. Discharge from buildings is by sewerage pump to the Hunter Water Corporation Trade Waste system. Water used in the wash-down bay is sent to the oil and water separator and trade waste system (GHD, 2013, p. 22). Water from the Hunter Water Potable Supply is also used in the CHPP and outflows to Mine Water Settling Pond 2 (GHD, 2013, p. 23). A full description of the water management process and water balance is given in GHD (2013).

Rehabilitation of surface facilities will occur within five years of completion of mining (Centennial Coal, 2011, p. 1). At the time of developing their responses to EIS submissions (Centennial Coal, 2011, p. 19), Centennial Coal stated that as there was no Lake Macquarie Strategic Land Use Strategy available, it was not possible to determine an appropriate post-mining land use plan (Centennial Coal, 2011, p. 19).

Last updated:
18 January 2019
Thumbnail of the Hunter subregion

Product Finalisation date

2015
PRODUCT CONTENTS

ASSESSMENT