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 in April 2010
Location
Tahmoor Colliery is located in New South Wales
Tahmoor Colliery
Tahmoor Colliery
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
History
Opened1980
Owner
CompanySIMEC Group
Websitewww.simec.com

Construction of the mine was commenced by Clutha Development in 1975 with it opened in 1980 by BP that had purchased Clutha. It was sold to Conzinc Riotinto Australia in 1989, Austal Coal in 1997, Centennial Coal in 2005, Xstrata in 2007 and Glencore in 2013 and SIMEC Group in 2018.[2][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.[3]

The colliery is connected to the Main Southern railway line via a balloon loop that opened in May 1981.[4]

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, Xstrata funded the construction of a diversion around Redbank Hill to remove trains from the tunnel, which was filled with rock and sealed.[5][6]

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. 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.[7]

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 & Rescue New South Wales.[8]

References
  1. "Tahmoor Coking Coal Operations". SIMEC Group. Retrieved 11 December 2018.
  2. Tahmoor SIMEC Group
  3. Creagh, Ben (3 January 2018). "Glencore offloads Tahmoor coal mine to GFG Alliance". Australian Mining. Retrieved 11 December 2018.
  4. Signalling & Safeworkng Railway Digest September 1981 page 277
  5. Southern Highlands coal miner moves rail line ABC News 5 December 2012
  6. Cox, Michael (15 January 2013). "Rail tunnel will soon be history". Wollondilly Advertiser. Retrieved 11 December 2018.
  7. "Legislative Assembly Hansard – 12 April 1994". Hansard & House Papers. Parliament of New South Wales. 12 April 1994. Retrieved 11 December 2018.
  8. "Two men trapped 160m down NSW coal mine shaft". News.com.au. 6 September 2018. Retrieved 11 December 2018.
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