Pine dale

The Pine Dale black coal mine is located five kilometres from Wallerawang and 17 kilometres north of Lithgow, in the Western Coalfields Region of central New South Wales. It was acquired by Chinese energy company, CLP Holdings, through its Australian subsidiary, Energy Australia, in 2012. The Pine Dale mine supplies coal to Delta Electricity's nearby Wallerawang and Mt Piper power stations.

The Pine Dale Coal Mine Supplies Fuel for Delta Electricity's Mt Piper Power Station
The Pine Dale Mine currently produces up to 350,000 tonnes of coal a year for the purposes of satisfying Delta Electricity's fuel requirements in operating its Mt Piper power station alone. Delta Electricity is also owned by Energy Australia. The company is presently seeking approval to extend its coal mining operation at Pine Dale that, once approved, will extend the life of the mine by 10 to 15 years while at the same time increasing its annual production to around two million tonnes of coal annually.

Pine Dale Owner Energy Australia has Operated Open cut Coal Mines in Australia Since 2001
Energy Australia has been operating open cut coal mines to generate power for its power stations since 2001, when it became the owner operator of Australia's biggest open cut brown coal mine in Victoria's Latrobe Valley at Yallourn.

Initial Pine Dale Coal Became Exhausted in 2010
The Pine Dale coal mine's initial coal reserve expired in 2010 and its then owner, Enhance Place, formulated a plan to extend its operation through using the coal remaining in the nearby abandoned Yarraboldy open pit mine. The Yarraboldy extension gave the Pine Dale Mine access to an additional 800,000 tonnes of coal to be mined over the following three years with production levels remaining at 350,000 tonnes a year. This extension allowed Energy Australia to continue with the use of its existing infrastructure, while progressing with the rehabilitation of the existing mine site as well as that of the Yarraboldy extension. The crushed coal from the extended mining operation would still be able to transported by truck, in the same manner as before, from the Pine Dale mine to the Mt Piper power station, by way of the Castlereagh Highway.

Pine Dale Extension Takes 12 Months to be Approved
The Pine Dale extension, that was held up for 12 months awaiting both state and federal government approvals, finally got underway in early 2012, with the first shipment going to the Mt Piper power station by the end of January. The re-opening of the mine created 20 jobs for local mine workers, the same number that were employed at the mine before the mine had to close when the initial Pine Dale coal reserve became exhausted.

Hong Kong listed energy company, CLP Holdings, became involved in energy production in Australia through its ownership of TRUenergy. It rebranded TRUenergy to Energy Australia in 2012 after it acquired the New South Wales based power retail company, Energy Australia, in 2011. Rather than operate as two separate identities it chose to merge the two brands into the one national brand, Energy Australia.
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