1.2.2.1.18 Mandalong Mine

Mandalong Mine is owned by Centennial Coal and operated by Centennial Mandalong Pty Ltd, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Centennial Coal Company NSW (Centennial Coal, 2012e, 2012f). Mandalong Mine was purchased in 2002 (as part of the Powercoal acquisition) and operations started in 2005 (Centennial Coal, 2012e). The planned life of mine is approximately until 2033 (Centennial Coal, 2012f, p. 2). Coal mined is for the domestic and export thermal coal markets.

Mandalong Mine is about 25 km south-west of Newcastle near Morisset (Centennial Coal, 2012f, p. 1). It is an underground longwall coal mining operation that comprises the Mandalong Mine underground working and surface infrastructure near Morisset, the Cooranbong Colliery underground workings and surface infrastructure near Dora Creek (Mandalong Mine – Cooranbong Entry Site) and the Delta Entry Site, which encompasses an entry and coal delivery system near Wyee at the Vales Point Rail Unloader Facility (Centennial Coal, 2012f, p. 1). Mandalong Mine operates within ML 1443 and ML 1543 (Centennial Coal, 2012g, p. 1). The mine has approval to extract up to 6 Mt/year (Centennial Coal, 2014c). Facilities at the site include overland conveyors, private haul roads to Newstan where coal is loaded for rail transport to the Port of Newcastle or on to dedicated conveyors for delivery to domestic power customers (Centennial Coal, 2012e), Eraring Power Station and Vales Point Power Station.

As at 2012, the site was reported to have an estimated remaining reserve of 88 Mt (Centennial Coal, 2012e). Coal is extracted from the West Wallarah coal seam (informal name) (Centennial Coal, 2014c, p. 1). Mandalong Mine is connected to both town water and sewerage. Potable water for underground use is supplied by the Hunter Water Corporation via pipeline to Cooranbong. The total potable water used in 2014 was 415.8 ML compared with 337 ML in 2012 (Centennial Coal, 2014c, p. 62). Potable water is primarily used for longwall continuous miners and conveyors for coolant and dust suppression (Centennial Coal, 2014c, p. 62). Managing runoff from rainfall events is the only surface water management required at Mandalong. Clean water is diverted around the western area of the site. A dam has been constructed to capture the water. Clean runoff from other parts of the site has been diverted around the eastern perimeter. All other water that is considered ‘dirty’ is directed to sediment control systems and is then used for irrigation of surrounding grassed areas as required. Oil-water separators are used to remove hydrocarbons from potentially contaminated runoff (Centennial Coal, 2014c, p. 62). An extensive groundwater monitoring network has been established to meet groundwater management requirements (Centennial Coal, 2014c, p. 65).