Ravensworth ML1349

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This is mining lease ML1349 which is for the Ravensworth Coal Mine Complex which includes both Open Cut and Underground Operations. The open cut operations are owned by a joint venture between Glencore Coal at 90%, and Itochu at 10% with Glencore Coal being the operator. The underground operations are owned by Resource Pacific Pty Ltd (RPL), which is a joint venture owned by Glencore at 78% and Marubeni at 22%. Resource Pacific is made up of the former assets of the Nardell Coal Company. The lease was granted June 3, 1994 with an expiry date of December 23, 2023. The approximate area of the is 1931 hectares and the lease falls under Act year 1992.

Nardell Coal Corporation Pty Limited (NCC) started mining operations in July 1999 with a small underground mine. Between December 1999 and February 2001 development work reached the Pikes Gully Seam, then mining began and continued until 2003. Nardell went into receivership in February 2003 and after open tender all assetts, which included the mining leases, were purchased by RPL and the mine renamed to Newpac. Ravensworth roots lie in the 2002 acquisition of Narama Coal Mine by Glencore and the acquisition of Newpac Underground Mine by Xstrata, both of which merged in 2012.

Open cut operations include the Narama and Ravenswoth North Mines. Narama is a strip mine using dragline for overburden removal, then loader and truck to mine coal which is trucked to the crushing plant where it is crushed to a nominal 50mm size then conveyed to the Bayswater and Liddell power stations. If the coal requires washing it is conveyed to the Ravenswoth Coal Handling Preparation Plant.

Coal at Narama is mined from the following seams: Vaux, Vx, Vo and V1/2, Ravensworth R1 and R2 and Bayswater Seams of the Jerry Plains Sub Group of the Wittingham Coal Measures. The average coal content is <8% moisture, <28% ash, and >21MJ/Kg Energy. Ravenworth North is an open cut using truck and shovel and mines coal from the following seams: Broonie seams through to the Bayswater, Lemington, Pikes Gully, Arties, Liddell and Barrett Seams to the Hebden Seam. The average coal content is <9% moisture, <33% ash, and >21MJ/Kg Energy. The life of mine is estimated at 29 years.

Underground Longwall mining started in 2007 with an approved production rate of 7 million tonnes per annum and continued until 2014 when the mine was placed on care and maintenance due to economic reasons. Equipment includes a shearer, armoured face conveyor, and hydralic roof supports. Development headings are first mined to provide access to the longwall panels. They are formed with continuous miners along each side of the longwall panels. At the south westerly extremity of the longwall, headings are connected to form a face to allow for the installation of the mining equipment. Underground resources are estimated at 252 million tonnes of high quality coal.