1.2.2.1.27 Rix's Creek Mine

Rix’s Creek Mine is owned by Bloomfield Collieries Pty Ltd (AECOM, 2013, p. 1). The mine has operated at its current site since 1990, although previous coal mining activity has occurred in the area since the late 1800s at the nearby New Park Colliery (AECOM, 2013, p. i). Mining is expected to continue until 2016 under current approvals (AECOM, 2013, p. i; The Bloomfield Group, 2012, p. 5), although the Rix’s Creek Continuation of Mining Project (The Bloomfield Group, 2014a) seeks to extend operations for a further 21 years.

Rix’s Creek Mine is approximately 5 km north-west of Singleton. Mining takes place at Mining Lease (ML) 1432 in two open-cuts, the North Pit 1 and the West Pit 3 (The Bloomfield Group, 2012, p. 5) using a multi-seam bench system, simultaneously mining up to nine seams (The Bloomfield Group, 2014b). Coal is transported on site by trucks to the rail loader then railed to Port Waratah Coal Services (The Bloomfield Group, 2014b). The mine produces from 1.5 to 2.8 Mt/year ROM coal (The Bloomfield Group, 2014; AECOM, 2013) of both thermal and semi-soft coking quality. Coal from Rix’s Creek is sold to domestic and overseas customers (The Bloomfield Group, 2014b). A CHPP is onsite (The Bloomfield Group, 2014b).

The coal mined at Rix’s Creek is extracted from the Wittingham Coal Measures (part of the Singleton Supergroup), including the Barrett coal seam, Liddell coal seam, Arties coal seam and Pikes Gully coal seam (The Bloomfield Group, 2014b). The Rix’s Creek plan for eventual decommissioning and rehabilitation has been developed to return land to stable, sustainable post-mining uses, by dividing the site into like units (‘domains’) that will allow focus on the treatment of like areas (the Bloomfield Group 2012, p. 3).