Liddell

The Liddell Colliery open cut coal mine located at Ravensworth in New South Wales is owned by a joint venture partnership comprising Xstrata Coal Pty Ltd ( Glencore Xstrata) and Mitsui Matsushima Australia Limited (MMA). The operator of the mine is Liddell Coal Operations Pty Ltd, a company wholly owned by Glencore Xstrata.

The Liddell Open Cut Black Coal Mine is Part of the Hunter Coalfield
The Liddell open cut black coal mine is situated in the Hunter Coalfield within the north eastern part of the Sydney Basin in the New England Block that is marked by the Hunter-Mooki thrust. The coal seams currently being mined at the Liddell Mine include the Barrett, Liddell, Arties, Pikes Gully and Lemington seams. These coal seams and other seams targeted for future development are thermal and semi soft coal types that range in thickness from 9.5 to 0.7 metres. The mine has a measured and indicated resource of 825.1 million tonnes that gives the mine a life of a further 33 years.

Coal Mining at the Liddell Open Cut Mine is Undertaken by Proven Methods
The Liddell open cut coal mine primarily uses the proven excavator and truck method of mining although it also utilises the highwall and dragline technology when deemed necessary. Mining at the Liddell open pit involves clearing the area above the coal seam and stockpiling the top soil and vegetation for later use when rehabilitation becomes necessary. The overburden is drilled and blasted before being excavated and hauled away to await replacing after the coal seam has been removed. The exposed coal is then excavated. The thermal and semi-soft coal that is mined from the site is exported to Korean, Japanese and other Asian markets.

Local Power Stations Purchase old Liddell Mine Tailings for Power Generation
Local power stations operated by Macquarie Generation purchase stockpiles of coal tailings left behind from previous underground and open cut operations that have built up at the site since the 1960's. Up to 0.5 million tonnes of this material is transported by truck haulage along the New England Highway and Pikes Road to the Bayswater or Liddell power stations each year.

Liddell Mine CHPP Upgraded in 2008
In 2008 Liddell Coal upgraded their processing plant, ROM pad and other facilities that increased capacity to eight from 4.5 million tonnes a year of ROM (run-of-mine) coal. The Coal Handling and Preparation Plant (CHPP) produces thermal and soft coking coal that is separated before stockpiling. The CHPP process includes sizing, washing, screening, rinsing, crushing and de-watering before the final product is placed on the product stockpile. Coal is taken from the stockpile and loaded into train wagons for transporting to the port at Newcastle for exporting. On arrival at Newcastle the coal is sampled and analysed. It is again sampled and analysed when being loaded onto ships to be taken to the company's various overseas customers by an independent certified quality control company. These stringent quality controls makes certain that no foreign matter contaminates the coal and that it always meets specified quality requirements.

Note-†GlencoreXstrata was formed following a merger of Glencore International and Xstrata, the merger was completed in May 2013. But a decision was made by the Company's shareholders during the annual general meeting and the announcement was made in May 2014 that Glencore will drop Xstrata and be simply known as Glencore.