The move comes even though the mine won state government approval in October to mine two additional longwall panels, LW51 and LW52.
They equated to 2.55 million tonnes run of mine – a little less than the estimated 3Mt ROM that the mine was no longer going to extract following the subsidence impacts the mine was blamed for in the Sugarloaf state conservation area.
At the time these two panels were considered enough to not alter West Wallsend’s existing mine life or approved production capacity of 5.5 million tonnes per annum ROM, with the panels selected after the adjacent Newstan Colliery terminated a sublease.
However, Glencore has also considered market conditions when re-assessing West Wallsend’s mine life.
“The decision is consistent with West Wallsend’s life of mine planning,” the mining giant said.
“Consideration had been given to a number of options to extend the mine’s life but a combination of factors, especially coal market and economic conditions, do not support continued operations.”
Glencore also claimed the closure was only a little earlier than previously planned.
“The closure will also occur some months earlier than originally scheduled, following Glencore’s decision not to mine an approved longwall block (Longwall 47) beneath cliff lines, terraces and steeper sections of the Sugarloaf State Conservation Area.
“As a result, development work at the mine will be completed by the end of June this year, with all mining to end in mid-2016.”
A Glencore spokesman clarified that the final panel, LW52, would be completed in mid-2016.
“Naturally, there will be a period afterwards for removal of equipment etcetera and an environmental team will remain at site post-closure,” he told ICN.
At least some of the West Wallsend workforce will have opportunities to pursue employment at other Glencore coal sites.
“We always investigate options for redeployment where possible,” the spokesman said.
“This will be the case for West Wallsend.”
The end of West Wallsend accounts for a significant portion of the Glencore’s plans to cut 15Mtpa of production across its Australian coal mining complexes in 2015, which after the West Wallsend closure, will be reduced to 12 across Queensland and NSW.
