Mount Thorley Warkworth: Steady as she goes
FOR almost 40 years, Mount Thorley Warkworth has been producing coal just out of Singleton in the Hunter Valley region of NSW. The two open cut mines – Mount Thorley (Yancoal and POSCO, 80:20 respectively) and Warkworth (Yancoal, Nippon Steel and Mitsubishi Materials, 84.5:9.5:6 respectively) – operate side-by-side and use dragline truck and shovel methods to produce medium and high-ash thermal coal and semi-soft coking coal for export. Yancoal is a Chinese state-owned organisation, and is also Australia’s largest pure-coal producer. The organisation operates five mines and manages five others across NSW, Queensland and WA, with a 50pc share in the Middlemount JV. 2018 was Yancoal’s first full year of attributable production from Mount Thorley Warkworth, following the 2017 acquisition,…