Myuna, which has 37Mt of reserves, would extract the coal from the Wallarah, Great Northern and Fassifern seams for up to 21 years.

The crushing of coal would be at Myuna Colliery’s coal handling plant, with the crushed coal transported by conveyor directly to Eraring Power Station for domestic use.

Surface facilities at the site would be decommissioned and rehabilitated after mining operations ceased in 2032.

Mining would be limited to bord and pillar extraction (first workings) only for both single and multi-seam extraction in zone A, a long term stability zone underneath sensitive features – that is, all land, high water level subsidence control zone and seagrass beds.

This would result in a maximum predicted subsidence of 20mm.

Underneath deeper areas of Lake Macquarie in zone B, the preferred mining method includes bord and pillar (first workings) for multi-seam extraction and non-caving partial pillar extraction (secondary workings) restricted to the bottom two seams, which would result in a maximum predicted subsidence of up to 650 mm.

In a transition area, mining in zone B would be undertaken with an angle of draw of 26.5 degrees from the boundary of Zone A, resulting in a transition area between the two zones.

Myuna’s existing underground mining operation, which was granted development consent in 1982, employs about 175 people.