1.2.2.1.24 Muswellbrook Coal Mine

Muswellbrook Coal Mine is 3 km north-east of Muswellbrook in the Upper Hunter Valley. The mine is owned by Muswellbrook Coal Company Limited (MCC), a wholly owned subsidiary of the Japanese company Idemitsu Australia Resources Pty Ltd. Underground operations began in 1907 and continued until 1997. Open-cut extraction was undertaken at the No. 1 coal mine from 1944 to 1970, and briefly recommenced from 2000 to 2002. The NSW Government granted development consent for the No. 1 Open-Cut Extension in 2003 (DA 205/2002) (AECOM, 2009, p. 5). Operations commenced at No. 1 Open Cut Extension in 2005 and are approved until 2020 (MCC, 2014, p. 1).

Operations began at the No. 2 Open-cut in 1965 and ceased in 2013. The licenses held for this complex are CCL 713, AUTH 176, ML 1304 (until 2024), ML 1513 (until 2023) and ML 1562 (until 2026) (NSW Trade and Investment, 2014, p. 4, p. 6, p. 13, p. 16, p. 17).

Operations are undertaken with shovels and excavators to remove overburden, and with a fleet of trucks to transport coal to the on-site CHPP. The approved mining rate is 2 Mt/year, but current operations are producing below the maximum approved limit (MCC, 2014, p. 13). Following processing, the coal is sent to the Port of Newcastle for export (Idemitsu Kosan, 2010, p. 1).