1.2.2.1.3 Mannering Colliery

Mannering Colliery is an underground coal mine south of Lake Macquarie, approximately 3 km south of Mannering Park and 60 km south of Newcastle (Figure 6) (EMGA Mitchell McLennan 2014a, p. 16; EMGA Mitchell McLennan, 2014b, p. E.1, p. 3). The Mannering Colliery pit top is approximately 1.1 km south of Chain Valley Colliery’s pit top, within Consolidated Coal Lease (CCL) 721 and CCL 719 (EMGA Mitchell McLennan, 2014b, p. E.4). Mannering Colliery, formerly known as Wyee State Mine since it first operated in 1960 (EMGA Mitchell McLennan Pty Ltd, 2014b, p. 2), is now owned by Centennial Mannering Pty Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of Centennial Coal (EMGA Mitchell McLennan, 2014a, p. E.4, p. 16). Approved operations involved extraction of up to 1.1 Mt/year of run-of-mine (ROM) coal from the Fassifern and Great Northern coal seams until March 2018 (EMGA Mitchell McLennan, 2014b, p. E.5).

Mannering Colliery was placed on care and maintenance in November 2012. In late 2013, Mannering Colliery (MC) and Chain Valley Colliery (CVC) entered into an agreement enabling LakeCoal Pty Ltd (LakeCoal), owners of Chain Valley, to operate Mannering until 2022 (effective 17 October 2013) (EMGA Mitchell McLennan, 2014a, p. 4; EMGA Mitchell McLennan, 2014b, p. 1). As part of this agreement, LakeCoal accepted responsibility for environmental management at Mannering Colliery (EMGA Mitchell McLennan, 2014a, p. 16). LakeCoal is wholly owned by LDO Coal Pty Ltd (LakeCoal Mannering Colliery, n.d.). Mining commenced at Mannering Colliery as a bord-and-pillar, although this was later replaced by longwall mining. Operations focused on the Great Northern coal seam (of the Moon Island Beach Formation) and the Fassifern coal seam (of the Boolaroo Formation) of the Permian Newcastle Coal Measures (EMGA Mitchell McLennan, 2014a, p. E.4-5, p. 16; EMGA Mitchell McLennan, 2014b, p. E.1, p. E.4, p. 27).

Since 2008 Mannering Colliery has had approval to produce up to 1.1 Mt/year of ROM coal until March 2018 (EMGA Mitchell McLennan Pty Ltd, 2014a, p. E.4-5, p. 16). An extension project has been proposed to join the Mannering and Chain Valley collieries. Details of this planned development are outlined in Section 1.2.3 .