Tahmoor Colliery

Tahmoor Colliery is an underground coal mine at Tahmoor in the Southern Highlands region of New South Wales, Australia. It operates in the Bulli coal seam. Most of the mine product is hard coking coal used for steel making. A small quantity of steaming blend coal used for power generation is also produced. Both products are exported to Europe and Asia.[1]

Tahmoor Colliery
Tahmoor Colliery Entrance
Location
LocationTahmoor
stateNew South Wales
CountryAustralia
Coordinates34.250°S 150.578°E / -34.250; 150.578
Production
ProductsCoking coal
Production2 000 000 tonnes
Financial year2017
TypeUnderground
Owner
CompanySIMEC Group
Websitewww.simec.com/mining/tahmoor-coking-coal-operations/

Tahmoor Colliery was bought by the SIMEC Group (part of the GFG Alliance) in early 2018. It had been owned by Glencore which acquired it as part of Xstrata. Following the sale, the mine will also provide feed for GFG's Whyalla steelworks.[2] It was formally opened by Sanjeev Gupta on 5 May 2018.[3]

The mine was reported in 2017 as having 57 Mt (56,000,000 long tons; 63,000,000 short tons) of reserves and 650 Mt (640,000,000 long tons; 720,000,000 short tons) total resource.[2]

In 2013, extension of the mine was anticipated to take below a railway tunnel on the Main Southern railway line. To avoid the risk of subsidence within the tunnel, the mine's owner at the time, Xstrata Coal, constructed a diversion around Redbank Hill to remove trains from the tunnel, which was filled with rock and sealed.[4]

Incidents

Tahmoor Colliery has a history of outbursts where gas trapped in the coal violently escapes during mining, throwing hundreds of tonnes of coal and rock, and large amounts of suffocating gas. One miner was killed as a consequence of one of these outbursts in 1985. At the time, the colliery was owned by Kembla Coal and Coke Pty Limited, a subsidiary of CRA (now Rio Tinto Group. In 1994, it was reported that Tahmoor had recorded 89 outbursts up to April 1992. In response to that fatality, practices and equipment were upgraded, initially to provide a separately-ventilated and armoured operator cabin, and later to provide remote control.[5]

In September 2018, two men were trapped 160 metres (520 ft) underground when the lift cage jammed in the mine shaft. They were uninjured, and rescued late in the evening by Fire and Rescue NSW.[6]

References
  1. "Tahmoor Coking Coal Operations". SIMEC Group. Retrieved 11 December 2018.
  2. Creagh, Ben (3 January 2018). "Glencore offloads Tahmoor coal mine to GFG Alliance". Australian Mining. Retrieved 11 December 2018.
  3. Hosie, Ewen (9 May 2018). "Tahmoor coal mine in NSW officially opened by Sanjeev Gupta". Australian Mining. Retrieved 11 December 2018.
  4. Cox, Michael (15 January 2013). "Rail tunnel will soon be history". Wollondilly Advertiser. Retrieved 11 December 2018.
  5. "Legislative Assembly Hansard – 12 April 1994". Hansard & House Papers. Parliament of New South Wales. 12 April 1994. Retrieved 11 December 2018.
  6. "Two men trapped 160m down NSW coal mine shaft". 6 September 2018. Retrieved 11 December 2018.
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