Rixs creek

Black coal from the Rixs Creek open cut mine near Singleton in the Hunter Valley region of New South Wales is fully processed on-site at its own processing plant and coal handling facilities. It is one of the more recent coal mines to be established in Australia having started producing coal here in 1990 by the Bloomfield Group. The Singleton area, however, where the mine is located, is a region well known for producing coal with the first mines operating there as far back as the 1850's.

A Producer of High quality Semi-soft Coal for Coking

The Rixs Creek coal mine produces high quality semi-soft coal for coking purposes as well as thermal coal for both the domestic Australian market and its overseas customers. It mines up to nine splits and seams at a time via a multi seam bench system technique. It also uses Hitachi and Caterpillar machinery to remove overburden and in extracting coal from the site for transporting to its processing plant. From the processing plant the coal is then transported by rail to Port Waratah Coal Services (PWCS) at the port at Newcastle where PWCS operate the largest coal handling facility in the world.

Coal Mining Started in the Area in 1860

Twenty years after the first coal mine started production at Rixs Creek in 1860, there were a total of 16 other mines operating in the same area. By 1890 Singleton had a population of 1,790 people, double what it was when the first mine opened there 30 years before. It 1880 three of the major mines operating in the area were employing close to 40 miners who were producing over 6,000 tonnes of coal annually. In 1919 the Rixs Creek mines first began supplying fuel for the copper smelters at Cobar.

Coal mining continued and slowly expanded until post war when the demand for electricity energy increased dramatically. Open cut mining allowed for steaming coal to be produced and further mines were created to keep up with the demand. By 1947 the Singleton population had reached almost 3,000 and coal mining was a major producer in the area along with vegetable, beef cattle and dairy farming.

Rixs Creek Mine - a Coal Mine With a Social Consciousness

The population of Singleton in 2013 is around 23,000 people and almost 20 percent of them are either directly, or indirectly, employed in the coal mining industry. Today the management of the Rixs Creek coal mine is extremely conscious of being involved with the local community and to this end has been prominent in taking part at an archaeological site excavating Aboriginal artefacts at nearby Warkworth Sands. This project has been undertaken with the cooperation of the local Wonnarua Aboriginal people and is set up as an example of how the mining industry can produce positive results when working on such local initiatives.

The Bloomfield Group, the owners of the Rixs Creek open cut coal mine, have a long history of being environmentally aware and have continually shown they are capable of operating their sites in an environmentally sensitive way no matter if they are undergoing rehabilitation, processing, exploration, or mining. They continually monitor their environmental impact and undertake regular reviews based on the monitoring to ensure they remain on top of the issue and are able to continually improve their use of resources, waste management and production processes so they, at all times, minimise any negative impact they may otherwise have.