The Ashton Coal Project (ACP) is a coalmine located 14 km northwest of Singleton in the Hunter Valley region of New South Wales. The project includes an open cut coal mine, an underground coal mine, a Coal Handling and Preparation Plant and a rail siding.
A Development Application (DA 309-1-2001-i) was lodged by White Mining Limited (WML) for the ACP in November 2001. The project was designated an integrated, State Significant Development and received development consent by the Minister for Planning on 11 October 2002 pursuant to the provisions of the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979. The development consent includes requirements for the development of 22 Environmental Management Plans in consultation with 18 government agencies.
To date, DA 309-11-2001-i has been modified on five (5) separate occasions these being:
- DA 309-11-2001-i modification (Mod 1) dated 15 October 2003 allows the Environment Protection Authority (EPA) to specify noise criteria in table 5.
- DA 309-11-2001-i modification (Mod 2) dated 27 January 2005 permits a 10 metre (m) increase in the height in Eastern Emplacement Area.
- DA 309-11-2001-i modification (Mod 3) dated 29 February 2007 allows for the construction and operation of tailings pipelines between the mine and the former Ravensworth Mine.
- DA 309-11-2001-i modification (Mod 4) dated 26 March 2010 authorising the development and mining of an additional longwall/miniwall panel, an increase in underground mine production and amendment of conditions.
- DA 309-11-2001-i modification (Mod 6) dated 24 December, 2010 authorising the extraction of coal from areas beneath Bowmans Creek, including the realignment of sections of Bowmans Creek prior to mining.
One (1) further modification (see below) has been lodged with the NSW Department of Planning (DoP) being:
The ACP is owned by the Ashton Joint Venture which is an unincorporated joint venture between Yancoal Australia (90%) and Itochu Corporation of Japan (10%). Yancoal is the operator of the mine.
Yancoal Australia Ltd is the operator and manager of the ACP. Yancoal Australia Ltd’s key Australian assets include interests in Ashton, Austar, Minerva, Moolarben and Yarrabee coal mines, Athena and Harrybrandt exploration projects in Queensland, NCIG Coal Terminal and Ultra Clean Coal Technology. One of Yancoal Australia Ltd primary objectives is to become a leader in the Australian coal mining industry.Yancoal Australia was incorporated in Australia in November 2004, and is a wholly owned subsidiary of Yanzhou Coal Mining Company Limited in the People's Republic of China.Yancoal Australia Ltd acquired the interest in the Ashton Open-Cut and Underground Coal Mines effective from December 2009 through its purchase of Felix Resources Pty Ltd.
Yancoal Australia operates the Ashton Coal Project with the same high level of innovation and expertise that it has applied to each of the projects that it has been involved in, complying with all conditions of the development consent, the Environmental Protection Licence and other licences and approvals. The development schedule for the project to date is as follows:
-
Commenced construction September 2003;
-
Commenced open cut mining operations early 2004;
-
Commenced coal shipments 1Q 2004, and
-
Commenced underground mining operations in 2005,
-
Commenced underground Longwall extraction in 2006,
The future development schedule for the project is as follows:
-
Completion of Open Cut mining in the North East Open Cut in October 2010.
-
Complete rehabilitation works for the North East Open Cut in 2012.
-
Complete mining of the South East Open Cut 2017.
-
Complete mining of the Underground 2023
Two significant features of the project to date are the high level of consultation and cooperation with the local community in the adjacent village of Camberwell; and the installation of a real-time environmental monitoring system to ensure that mining operations comply with the conditions of the Environmental Protection Licence.
