Coal deposits of Australia

Uwe Hunger Abstract. Australia, the worlds 4th largest coal producer behind China, USA and India. The coalproduction from 1999 to 2000 was 254 million t of black coal and 66 million t of brown coal. The most use of Australian coal is for steaming and coking coal. The main export-area for Australian coal is the Asia region e.g.: coking coal exported to China or anthracitic coal exported to Japan. The Australian coals can be separated into Permian, Mesozoic and tertiary coals. The Permian coals are in general hard coal between high volatile bituminous and anthracite rank, the Mesozoic coals are high volatile bituminous, perhydrous coals and the tertiary coals are of the lignitic rank.

Fig.1: Map of Australia from Wikipedia

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Tertiary coals of Victoria

In the south east of the austalian continent lies the state of Victoria and in the southest part of Victoria is the Gippsland Basin placed (Latrobe Valley). The coals of the Gippsland Basin are the youngest coals that can be extracted by mining. And these coals have an in situ reserve of 100,000 million tonnes. (The special, of this coal area, is that these coals will be mined onshore and offshore.) The coal has five major coal seams, which are defined in Yallourn, Morwell and Traralgon Formations. These three formations are all not older than 5 Ma; the individual seam thickness often exceeds the 100 m. The vertical stratigraphic position is over 400 m of continuous low ash coal.

Fig.2: Location map of onshore Gippsland Basin showing the distribution of the Yallourn

and Morwell coal seams, and the main structural features. Based on International Journal of coal Geology 70 (2007).

Coal deposits of Australia

Yallourn-Formation The Yallourn-Formation is the youngest coal in the Gippsland Basin; it was built in the upper Miocene. It shows a dryer climate than lower or middle Miocene (by reduced rainfall) and a high influence by seawater (relative high sea levels) shown by the sclerophyll biofacies. That stands for a rapid grown swamp fauna, which was continuously over flooded by seawater. The Yallourn-Formation is the only brown coal formation.The formation has a major thickness of 110m; it has an area of 565 km. The ash content is max. 1,5% and the sulphur content is max. 5,2%. The moisture is lower than 22%. The Yallourn-Formation shows a medium light to medium dark litho type, with a lightning upward over 10 15m intervals.

Morwell Formation The Morwell Formation is the middles formation of the Gippsland Basin, it was built between the lower to the middle Miocene and include the climate change of this two times, from warm and dry to warm and wet. Because of this the Morwell Formation can by divided into two main parts: M1 with ash content lesser than 4%, sulphur content lesser than 10%, a thickness of 165m and moisture content from 6 - 10%. M1 is the lower and older coal formation (lower Miocene). M2 with ash content lesser than 1%, sulphur content between 5-8%, thickness of 140m and moisture between 10-12%. M2 is the upper part of this formation and stands for the middle Miocene, with warm and wet climate. With the Morwell Formation begins the black coal, and it has a complete thickness of 305m.

Traralgon Formation The Traralgon Formation is the oldest formation in the Gippsland basin. It was built between the middle Eocene to the Oligocene. It has a thickness of 150m, ash content lesser than 10%, sulphur content lesser than 6% and a moisture between 14%. For the Traralgon Formation exists only calculated reserves, which are in total about 10 Gt.

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Fig. 3: Generalised stratigraphic scheme for the onshore Gippsland Basin showing the relationship between coal measures, marine formations and biostratigraphic data. Based on International Journal of coal Geology 70 (2007).

Mesozoic / Jurassic coal

The Jurassic coal of Australia lies on the border of the states of New South Wales and Queensland, in the southern Bowen Basin and the northern Sydney Basin. The most of this coal are in the Surat Valley. This coal is different to the others because of the great gas amount, which it contents. So this coal will be special used to

Coal deposits of Australia

gasification. But this coal is also used to hydro liquefaction and power production.

Fig.4: Study area in the Surat Basin. International Journal of Coal Geology 70 (2007)

The Jurassic coal is a black coal of waxy and resinous behavior. This coal is divided into two coal measures: the (upper) Juandah coal measure and the (lower) Taroom coal measure. Both coal types have carbon content larger than 80%, hydrogen content between 5-7% and come from the middle Jura. The differences between both measures are: the Juandah coal measure has a gas content of 4 - 5,5 m/t and an ash yield of 27 31% but the Taroom coal measure has a gas content of 6 -7 m/tand an ash yield of 30 33% .

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Fig.5: Litho-stratigraphy of the Surat Basin from International Journal of Coal Geology 70 (2007)

Coal deposits of Australia

Permian coals

Permian coal can be found at every corner at the Australian continent, on the western site are the Collie Basin (in the Perth area) and the Fitzroy Basin in Western Australia, in central Australia is Ackaringa Basin placed, in the near of Alice Springs (South Australia and the border to Northern Territory), on the east site are the Sydney Basin, in New South Wales, and the Bowen Basin, the Cooper Basin and the Galilee Basin in Queensland. The australian perm coals are formed by the gondwana-iceing, the climate was subpolar to cool with seasonal extreme coldnesses, like Sibiria today, and with a periglacial enviroment in the perm. The low sulphur content of these coal is happend by a marin influenced building area (brakish water). All coal basins from the permian age show a relativly high subsiding rate and a high sedimentary content. The western and central coal basins are not so well studied like the great eastern coal basins. Because of the western basins are very smaller than the eastern and the central basins are to far away from the coast to by economically used.

Collie Basin (Western Australia) The Collie Basin is a intracratonic rift basin, that has a 13 km vertical depostion of brecciaeted sands, marls and clays. The coal seam thickness of the Collie Basin runs from 1.5m to 12m. The coal seams are overlayed by a 1,5 km sedimentdeposit. The Collie Basin coals have a low sulphur and ash content and they are subbitumnous. Cooper and Galilee Basin (Queensland) This two coal basins can be descriebed togethter, because both show the same results. Both basins contain of inertinite rich coals, more than 50% of all coals. The basins have the same sulphur content of lesser than 1% and an ash content of 10%, mostly 6% but in extrems up to 15%. The coal seams are in a range from 20 to 30 m in thickness. Both are botanically unstructured and have vertical variation of vitrinite and sulphur content. The forming of these two coal basins was in the early perm with slow subsiding rates. The Cooper basin is to far away from the coast to be economically used, not so the Galilee Basin, it is in range for economically mining.

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Sydney and Bowen Basin (Queensland and New South Wales) These two Basins also can be descriebed togethter, because both are dominated by vitrinite rich coals with a sulphur content lesser than 1% and an ash content lesser than 10%. Both basins were built in middelst to the late perm with high subsiding rates.

Fig.6: Eastern permian coal basins ( verndert nach Volkmann)

Hunter Valley (heated and unheated coal) The Hunter Valley is a nothern part of the Sydney Basin, near the towns Muswellbrook and Dartbrook, it is a special part of the Sydney Basin because the coal seam is divided into Upper Wynn and Lower Wynn. The Upper Wynn is the unheated coal seam, with a thickness of 11m, ash content of lesser than 10% and a sulphur content of lesser than 1%. The Upper Wynn is temporally under mining. But the Lower Wynn is heated, beneath the coal seam is an igenous intrusion, which burnt the coal and changes the values of ash and sulphur. The burnt coal has a sulphur content up to 6% and aash content up to 17%. In the coal are the minerals like pyrite, dolomite and others findable.

Coal deposits of Australia

Fig.7:Extent of the Sydney Basin, the major coal-bearing basin in New South Wales (Australia) showing the location of Dartbrook mine in thenorthwest of the basin.

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References
John W. Hunt, Michelle Smyth (1989) International Journal of Coal Geology 11: 23-46 Rushdy Othman, Colin R. Ward (2002) International Journal of Coal Geology 51: 145-167 Peter J. Crosdale (2004) International Journal of Coal Geology 58: 125-130 Guy R. Holdgate (2005) International Journal of Coal Geology 63: 130-155 Alexandra N. Golab, Adrian C. Hutton, David French (2007) International Journal of Coal Geology 70: 150-165 Steven Scott, Bruce Anderson, Peter Crosdale, Julie Dingwall, Garry Leblang (2007) International Journal of Coal Geology 70: 209-222 G. R. Holdgate, I. Cartwright, D. T. Blackburn, M. W. Wallace, S. J. Gallagher, B. E. Wagstaff, Li Chung (2007) International Journal of Coal Geology 70: 95-115 Journal of Sedimentary Research, (March 2006): 618-632

Coal deposits of Australia

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