÷Some of the more notable coal companies in Australia are the following:
121-717: A. Anglo Coal Callide Mine, Queensland b. Anglo Coal Capcoal Mine, Middlemount QLD c. Anglo Coal Dartbrook Mine, Muswellbrook NSW d. Anglo Coal Drayton Mine, Muswellbrook NSW e. Anglo Coal Foxleigh Mine, Middlemount QLD f. Anglo Coal Grasstree Mine, Middlemount QLD g. Anglo Coal Moranbah North, Moranbah QLD h. Dawson mine, one of Queensland's leading export coal operations, is owned by the Moura Joint Venture, comprising Anglo Coal Australia Pty Ltd (51%) and Mitsui Coal Holdings Pty Ltd (49%) a. Broadmeadow Mine b. Goonyella Riverside c. Gregory Crinum d. Peak Downs Mine e. Saraji Mine f. South Walker Creek Mine g. Poitrel Mine
242-588: A capacity of 9 million tonnes per annum (Mtpa) of feed yielding about 5.8Mtpa of saleable coal, utilising crushing, screening, dense medium separation, froth flotation. Vale 's global coal business is headquartered in Australia, but includes mining operations in Australia, China, Colombia and Mozambique. In Australia, Vale operates mines in Queensland's Bowen Basin and the Hunter Valley district of New South Wales with
363-863: A century after its original naming, with the United States Geological Survey until 1941 considering the Permian a subsystem of the Carboniferous equivalent to the Mississippian and Pennsylvanian . The Permian Period is divided into three epochs , from oldest to youngest, the Cisuralian, Guadalupian, and Lopingian. Geologists divide the rocks of the Permian into a stratigraphic set of smaller units called stages , each formed during corresponding time intervals called ages. Stages can be defined globally or regionally. For global stratigraphic correlation,
484-612: A city in Perm Krai. The stage was introduced by Alexandr Antonovich Stukenberg in 1890. The Kungurian currently lacks a defined GSSP. Recent proposals have suggested the appearance of Neostreptognathodus pnevi as the lower boundary. The Guadalupian Series is named after the Guadalupe Mountains in Texas and New Mexico, where extensive marine sequences of this age are exposed. It was named by George Herbert Girty in 1902. The Roadian
605-622: A coal swamp community, has an upper canopy consisting of lycopsid tree Sigillaria , with a lower canopy consisting of Marattialean tree ferns, and Noeggerathiales. Early conifers appeared in the Late Carboniferous, represented by primitive walchian conifers, but were replaced with more derived voltzialeans during the Permian. Permian conifers were very similar morphologically to their modern counterparts, and were adapted to stressed dry or seasonally dry climatic conditions. The increasing aridity, especially at low latitudes, facilitated
726-672: A coal washing and processing plant, with the main facilities located in NE Tasmania, and a mine in Southern Tasmania. Production of raw coal in 2007/2008 totalled 725 490 tonnes, with 436 544 tonnes of saleable coal being produced. Donaldson Coal is a coal producer based in New South Wales, Australia. The mining operations are based in the Hunter Valley just south of Maitland , 25 kilometres from Newcastle and Port Waratah . Production
847-527: A dramatic increase in diversification during the Early Permian. Towards the end of the Permian, there was a substantial drop in both origination and extinction rates. The dominant insects during the Permian Period were early representatives of Paleoptera , Polyneoptera , and Paraneoptera . Palaeodictyopteroidea , which had represented the dominant group of insects during the Carboniferous, declined during
968-618: A mine life of more than 20 years at current and proposed levels of production. In Queensland, Rio Tinto Coal Australia operates the Blair Athol coal mine , Hail Creek coal mine and Kestrel coal mine and is currently constructing the Clermont Mine Project. In New South Wales, Rio Tinto Coal Australia manages Coal & Allied 's operations at Mount Thorley Warkworth, Hunter Valley Operations and Bengalla. Hail Creek Mine can now produce eight million tonnes of coking coal. Bengalla Mine
1089-556: A nominal production capacity of 8Mtpa. Vale is also involved in continuing exploration activities with 7,000km2 of coal exploration assets in Queensland. Wesfarmers Ltd is a major diversified Australian public company. Its Resources division has mining interests throughout Australia. Their coal interests include the Curragh coal mine in the Bowen Basin in Queensland (metallurgical coal for export markets and steam coal for domestic markets),
1210-623: A number of mines in Queensland and New South Wales . Callide mine: is a leading Queensland domestic coal producer providing low-sulphur, sub-bituminous thermal coal primarily for domestic power generation. The coalfields cover an area of 180 square kilometres and contain seams up to 26 metres thick. Annual production is 7 million tonnes per annum (Mtpa) of sub-bituminous thermal coal. At December 2014, estimates for ROM reserves are approximately 202 Mt of domestic and export thermal quality, with an additional 262 Mt of mineable in-situ resources outside
1331-472: A peak of diversity in the Cisuralian, with a substantial decline during the Guadalupian-Lopingian following Olson's extinction, with the family diversity dropping below Carboniferous levels. Embolomeres , a group of aquatic crocodile-like limbed vertebrates that are reptilliomorphs under some phylogenies. They previously had their last records in the Cisuralian, are now known to have persisted into
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#17328633224851452-514: A protective cover, over plants such as ferns that disperse spores in a wetter environment. The first modern trees ( conifers , ginkgos and cycads ) appeared in the Permian. Three general areas are especially noted for their extensive Permian deposits—the Ural Mountains (where Perm itself is located), China, and the southwest of North America, including the Texas red beds. The Permian Basin in
1573-478: A subsidiary of Idemitsu Kosan acquired the entire share capital of Muswellbrook Coal from Muswellbrook Energy and Minerals. New Hope is an independent energy company which has open-cut mines at Acland on the Darling Downs and at Rosewood near Ipswich. The New Acland open cut mine is located approximately 150 kilometres west of Brisbane in the Darling Downs region of Queensland. The mining method used at New Acland
1694-436: A vast array of international businesses including electronics. Bligh Coal is a 100% subsidiary of Idemitsu. Queensland's third largest thermal coal producer is planning to expand its operations significantly in coming years with a proposed future underground mine in addition to continued expansion of its open-cut operations. Idemitsu Australia Resources Pty Ltd and its Australian subsidiary, Bligh Coal Limited together own 85% of
1815-536: Is 30 million tonnes per annum. Foxleigh Mining is the operator of a coal mine in central Queensland. The project is a joint venture between Brisbane company CAML Resources (63%), ICRA Foxleigh, part of the Japanese Itochu group (20.6%), and Indigenous Business Australia (IBA) (16.4%). The mine commenced operations in late 1999 and presently exports coal to steel mills in Korea, Japan, and elsewhere. In July 2004,
1936-456: Is a 6.6 million tonne per year open-cut operation located about four kilometres west of Muswellbrook. The mine produced 5.9 million tonne of thermal coal in 2005, and has marketable reserves of 154.6 million tonnes. The Hunter Valley coal preparation plant (HVCPP) is consented to receive has a capacity of about 20 million tonnes per annum (Mtpa) run of mine (ROM) coal utilising dense medium cyclones and spirals. The coal preparation plants at MTW have
2057-630: Is a global hiatus in the terrestrial fossil record during the late Kungurian and early Roadian , referred to as "Olson's Gap" that obscures the nature of the transition. Other proposals have suggested that the North American and Russian records overlap, with the latest terrestrial North American deposition occurring during the Roadian, suggesting that there was an extinction event, dubbed " Olson's Extinction ". The Middle Permian faunas of South Africa and Russia are dominated by therapsids, most abundantly by
2178-474: Is a large open cut coking coal mine in the Bowen Basin . It is one of many coal mines in Central Queensland , Australia and is located at Moranbah about 30 km north of the township. The mine produced 12.4 million tonnes of metallurgical coal from July 2012 to June 2013. In 2019 this figure was 17.1 million tonnes. It is owned by BHP Mitsubishi Alliance . The Goonyella Upper Seam,
2299-534: Is a world class coal asset located 40 km east of Mudgee in the Upper Hunter Valley e. Harrybrandt exploration project, near Nebo, Bowen Basin, Queensland a. Burton mine is located in the Bowen Basin b. North Goonyella underground and Eaglefield open-cut mines are located at the northern end of the Bowen Basin c. Millennium mine is located near the town of Moranbah in the Bowen Basin d. Wilkie Creek mine
2420-553: Is an extension of the existing Appin Mine that accesses valuable coking coal reserves to the north of the previous Tower Mine operations. Appin West is situated on Douglas Park Road, near Douglas Park, to the west of Appin , approximately 30 minutes from Wollongong . Jellinbah Group Pty Ltd (formerly Queensland Coal Mine Management Pty Ltd) is a privately owned independent Queensland-based coal company. Jellinbah Group has 70% ownership interests in
2541-500: Is an open-cut multi-thin-seam operation which utilises trucks, excavators and front-end loaders. Overburden is blasted or ripped by bulldozers prior to extraction. New Oakleigh operates an open-cut coal mine near the town of Rosewood, 23 kilometres west of Ipswich and 92 kilometres from the Port of Brisbane. The mining method used at New Oakleigh is a multi-thin-seam operation utilising trucks, excavators and front-end loaders. Overburden
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#17328633224852662-523: Is blasted or ripped by bulldozers prior to extraction. During the fiscal year ended 31 July 2008 (fiscal 2008), total saleable coal production from New Hope's operations was 4.451 million tons. The New Acland Mine is located 16 kilometres northwest of Oakey on the Darling Downs in South East Queensland and is the company's major production source with approximately 3.92 million tons produced during fiscal 2008. The balance of coal production in
2783-584: Is caused by high levels of exposure to silica dust. Permian Age The Permian ( / ˈ p ɜːr m i . ə n / PUR -mee-ən ) is a geologic period and stratigraphic system which spans 47 million years from the end of the Carboniferous Period 298.9 million years ago (Mya), to the beginning of the Triassic Period 251.902 Mya. It is the sixth and last period of the Paleozoic Era;
2904-637: Is defined by the first appearance of the conodont Jinogondolella aserrata. The Capitanian is named after the Capitan Reef in the Guadalupe Mountains of Texas, named by George Burr Richardson in 1904, and first used in a chronostratigraphic sense by Glenister and Furnish in 1961 as a substage of the Guadalupian Stage. The Capitanian was ratified as an international stage by the ICS in 2001. The GSSP for
3025-501: Is exported to leading energy producers in Japan, Korea, India and China and other countries. Felix Resources is an expanding company with a focus on coal mining and the development and operation of coal-related assets. Felix Resources is one of six companies involved in the construction of the NCIG terminal which is designed with a final capacity of 66 million tonnes per annum. The first stage
3146-553: Is located in the Hunter Valley, about 30 kilometres from Singleton. Mining commenced in 1969. Wambo produces around five million tonnes (5.5 million tons) of saleable thermal coal a year. Metropolitan is located in the Southern coalfields, about 50 kilometres south of Sydney. The coal leases cover an area of 5,195 hectares. The mine currently produces around 1.5 million saleable tonnes (1.65 million tons) of hard coking and semi-hard coking coal per year. Reserves provide for
3267-742: Is located in the Surat Basin of south-east Queensland e. Wilpinjong mine is located 10 kilometres south-east of Ulan mine and 40 kilometres north-east of Mudgee f. Wambo is one of Peabody's largest operating mines and is located in the Hunter Valley g. Chain Valley is located in the Newcastle coalfield on the southern shore of Lake Macquarie h. Metropolitan is located in the Southern coalfields, about 50 kilometres south of Sydney a. Premier Coal mine at Collie in Western Australia's south west b. Bengalla mine in
3388-448: Is located in the Surat Basin of southern Queensland. Although mining originally started in 1994, Peabody commenced operations in 2005. Currently producing around 1.8 million tonnes (2 million tons) of low-sulphur, low-nitrogen, environmentally superior thermal coal, plans are under way to ramp up to 2.5 million tonnes (2.8 million tons) in 2008. Peabody Pacific operate four mine sites in New South Wales. These extend from
3509-751: Is part of the Singleton Super Group including the Barrett, Liddell, Arties and Pikes Gully seams. The mine produces 0.88 million tonnes per annum. Jointly owned with Mitsubishi Development Pty Ltd, the BHP Mitsubishi Alliance (BMA) is Australia's largest coal miner and exporter, and the world's largest supplier to the sea borne coking coal market. BMA's mines are located in the coal-rich Bowen Basin of Central Queensland, where BMA owns and operates six mines – Goonyella Riverside , Broadmeadow, Peak Downs , Saraji, Norwich Park and Gregory Crinum – and
3630-421: Is situated south-east of the town of Moranbah h. Hay Point Coal Terminal, located 38 km south of Mackay Airly, Newstan, Awaba (Closed), Myuna, Mandalong, Mannering, Angus Place, Springvale, Charbon, Berrima, Clarence, Cooranbong (Closed), Munmorah (Closed) a. Singleton in the Hunter Valley b. Central Queensland's Bowen Basin c. Emerald in Queensland's Bowen Basin d. The Moolarben coal project
3751-472: Is sourced from three mines. The Tasman underground mine, where mining started in 2006, is near Mount Sugarloaf , approximately 20 km from Newcastle and 18 km from South Maitland. Entry to the site is off George Booth Drive approximately 1.5 km west of Seahampton. The Mine Lease covers approximately 952 hectares with George Booth Drive to the north, the F3 Freeway to the east and Mount Sugarloaf in
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3872-452: Is thought to have existed during the Early Permian. Though the fossil record is fragmentary, lungfish appear to have undergone an evolutionary diversification and size increase in freshwater habitats during the Early Permian, but subsequently declined during the middle and late Permian. Conodonts experienced their lowest diversity of their entire evolutionary history during the Permian. Permian chondrichthyan faunas are poorly known. Members of
3993-507: The Hay Point terminal near Mackay . The Bowen Basin covers an area of 75,000 km of Permian Age marine and freshwater sediments and is roughly triangular in shape, extending around 550 km from its northern peak at Collinsville, southwards to its base at Theodore , where it is approximately 250 km wide. With the exception of the Crinum and Broadmeadow underground longwall operations,
4114-580: The International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS) ratify global stages based on a Global Boundary Stratotype Section and Point (GSSP) from a single formation (a stratotype ) identifying the lower boundary of the stage. The ages of the Permian, from youngest to oldest, are: For most of the 20th century, the Permian was divided into the Early and Late Permian, with the Kungurian being the last stage of
4235-696: The Mount Piper coal-fired power station . The Mine has development consent to produce up to 1 Mtpa, however historical production has been around 700,000 tonnes per annum. An independent Queensland-based coal mining company with operations located in Queensland's Bowen Basin. Macarthur Coal currently operates out of its Coppabella, Moorvale and Middlemount mines. The company also has an extensive range of prospects for new projects. Macarthur Coal mines approximately 5.5 million tonnes of raw coal to produce 4.2 million tonnes of product coal each year. Taken over by Muswellbrok Industries Limited. Idemitsu Muswellbrook Coal
4356-707: The North China Craton , the South China Block and Indochina fused to each other and Pangea by the end of the Permian. The Zechstein Sea , a hypersaline epicontinental sea , existed in what is now northwestern Europe. Large continental landmass interiors experience climates with extreme variations of heat and cold (" continental climate ") and monsoon conditions with highly seasonal rainfall patterns. Deserts seem to have been widespread on Pangaea. Such dry conditions favored gymnosperms , plants with seeds enclosed in
4477-675: The Paleo-Tethys Ocean , a large ocean that existed between Asia and Gondwana. The Cimmeria continent rifted away from Gondwana and drifted north to Laurasia , causing the Paleo-Tethys Ocean to shrink. A new ocean was growing on its southern end, the Neotethys Ocean , an ocean that would dominate much of the Mesozoic Era. A magmatic arc, containing Hainan on its southwesternmost end, began to form as Panthalassa subducted under
4598-798: The Permian–Triassic extinction event (colloquially known as the Great Dying), the largest mass extinction in Earth's history (which is the last of the three or four crises that occurred in the Permian), in which nearly 81% of marine species and 70% of terrestrial species died out, associated with the eruption of the Siberian Traps . It took well into the Triassic for life to recover from this catastrophe; on land, ecosystems took 30 million years to recover. Prior to
4719-543: The Sydney Basin , and palaeoclimatic models of the Earth's climate based on the behaviour of modern weather patterns showing that such a megamonsoon would occur given the continental arrangement of the Permian. The aforementioned increasing equatorial aridity was likely driven by the development and intensification of this Pangaean megamonsoon. Permian marine deposits are rich in fossil mollusks , brachiopods , and echinoderms . Brachiopods were highly diverse during
4840-447: The U.S. states of Texas and New Mexico is so named because it has one of the thickest deposits of Permian rocks in the world. Sea levels dropped slightly during the earliest Permian (Asselian). The sea level was stable at several tens of metres above present during the Early Permian, but there was a sharp drop beginning during the Roadian, culminating in the lowest sea level of the entire Palaeozoic at around present sea level during
4961-399: The Ural Mountains in the years 1840 and 1841. Murchison identified "vast series of beds of marl , schist , limestone , sandstone and conglomerate" that succeeded Carboniferous strata in the region. Murchison, in collaboration with Russian geologists, named the period after the surrounding Russian region of Perm, which takes its name from the medieval kingdom of Permia that occupied
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5082-563: The pseudosuchians , dinosaurs , and pterosaurs in the following Triassic, first appeared and diversified during the Late Permian, including the first appearance of the Archosauriformes during the latest Permian. Cynodonts , the group of therapsids ancestral to modern mammals , first appeared and gained a worldwide distribution during the Late Permian. Another group of therapsids, the therocephalians (such as Lycosuchus ), arose in
5203-589: The Asselian, Sakmarian, and Artinskian stages. The Kungurian was later added to conform to the Russian "Lower Permian". Albert Auguste Cochon de Lapparent in 1900 had proposed the "Uralian Series", but the subsequent inconsistent usage of this term meant that it was later abandoned. The Asselian was named by the Russian stratigrapher V.E. Ruzhenchev in 1954, after the Assel River in the southern Ural Mountains. The GSSP for
5324-661: The Cisuralian. Another cool period began around the middle Capitanian. This cool period, lasting for 3-4 Myr, was known as the Kamura Event. It was interrupted by the Emeishan Thermal Excursion in the late part of the Capitanian, around 260 million years ago, corresponding to the eruption of the Emeishan Traps . This interval of rapid climate change was responsible for the Capitanian mass extinction event. During
5445-450: The Cisuralian. Permian synapsids included some large members such as Dimetrodon . The special adaptations of synapsids enabled them to flourish in the drier climate of the Permian and they grew to dominate the vertebrates. A faunal turnover occurred around the transition between the Cisuralian and Guadalupian, with the decline of amphibians and the replacement of pelycosaurs (a paraphyletic group) with more advanced therapsids , although
5566-490: The Early Permian Chemnitz petrified forest of Germany demonstrates that they had complex branching patterns similar to modern angiosperm trees. By the Late Permian, high thin forests had become widespread across the globe, as evidenced by the global distribution of weigeltisaurids. The oldest likely record of Ginkgoales (the group containing Ginkgo and its close relatives) is Trichopitys heteromorpha from
5687-591: The Early Permian. Glenister and colleagues in 1992 proposed a tripartite scheme, advocating that the Roadian-Capitanian was distinct from the rest of the Late Permian, and should be regarded as a separate epoch. The tripartite split was adopted after a formal proposal by Glenister et al. (1999). Historically, most marine biostratigraphy of the Permian was based on ammonoids ; however, ammonoid localities are rare in Permian stratigraphic sections, and species characterise relatively long periods of time. All GSSPs for
5808-561: The Early Triassic, but a Permian origin is suspected. The diversity of coelacanths is relatively low throughout the Permian in comparison to other marine fishes, though there is an increase in diversity during the terminal Permian (Changhsingian), corresponding with the highest diversity in their evolutionary history during the Early Triassic. Diversity of freshwater fish faunas was generally low and dominated by lungfish and "Paleopterygians". The last common ancestor of all living lungfish
5929-829: The Goonyella Middle Seam and the Goonyella Lower Seam are all mined at the site. The coal is well known for its great coking characteristics. Much of the coal was such a high grade, the wash plants were often programmed to add ash to meet the contracted export quality targets. The Goonyella Mine was developed by Central Queensland Coal Associates, ( Utah International Corporation 85% and Mitsubishi Development Co 15%) before being sold to BHP. Operations commenced in 1971 at Goonyella while mining began at Riverside in 1982. The Riverside deposit became depleted in 2005. On 12 November 2019, BMA Operations announced that it would automate 86 Komatsu Trucks by 2020. The announcement
6050-402: The Hunter Valley coalfields west of Newcastle to the Southern coalfields just below Sydney. Wilpinjong mine is located 10 kilometres south-east of Ulan mine and 40 kilometres north-east of Mudgee . Mining commenced in late 2006; production in 2009 was 8.3 million tons, and Peabody plans to make further investments to increase output. Wambo is one of Peabody's largest operating mines and
6171-581: The Hunter Valley, New South Wales a. Westside, New South Wales b. West Wallsend, New South Wales c. Bulga, New South Wales d. Beltana, New South Wales e. Narama, New South Wales f. Mangoola, Hunter Valley, New South Wales g. Mount Owen - The Mount Owen Complex consists of the Mount Owen, Ravensworth East and Glendell open cut coal mines h. Ravensworth, New South Wales i. Ulan Coal j. Baal Bone, New South Wales k. Cumnock, New South Wales l. Narama, New South Wales Anglo Coal Australia Ltd owns and operates
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#17328633224856292-839: The Jellinbah and Lake Vermont Mines. Jellinbah Group is also the manager of both operations. Coalpac acquired the assets of the Lithgow Coal Company in February 2008. These assets include the Cullen Valley Mine located in the Western Coalfield of New South Wales, Australia. It is immediately adjacent to the Baal Bone Colliery to the west and the Invincible Colliery to the south, and is approximately 5 km by road from
6413-472: The Late Permian. Members of the modern orders Archostemata and Adephaga are known from the Late Permian. Complex wood boring traces found in the Late Permian of China suggest that members of Polyphaga , the most diverse group of modern beetles, were also present by the Late Permian. The terrestrial fossil record of the Permian is patchy and temporally discontinuous. Early Permian records are dominated by equatorial Europe and North America, while those of
6534-606: The Late Permian. By the Changhsingian, only a handful (4-6) genera remained. Corals exhibited a decline in diversity over the course of the Middle and Late Permian. Terrestrial life in the Permian included diverse plants, fungi , arthropods , and various types of tetrapods . The period saw a massive desert covering the interior of Pangaea . The warm zone spread in the northern hemisphere, where extensive dry desert appeared. The rocks formed at that time were stained red by iron oxides,
6655-514: The Lopingian in China. Modern amphibians ( lissamphibians ) are suggested to have originated during Permian, descending from a lineage of dissorophoid temnospondyls or lepospondyls . The diversity of fish during the Permian is relatively low compared to the following Triassic. The dominant group of bony fishes during the Permian were the " Paleopterygii " a paraphyletic grouping of Actinopterygii that lie outside of Neopterygii . The earliest unequivocal members of Neopterygii appear during
6776-418: The Lopingian series. The GSSP for the base of the Wuchiapingian is located at Penglaitan, Guangxi , China and was ratified in 2004. The boundary is defined by the first appearance of Clarkina postbitteri postbitteri The Changhsingian was originally derived from the Changxing Limestone, a geological unit first named by the Grabau in 1923, ultimately deriving from Changxing County , Zhejiang .The GSSP for
6897-408: The Lopingian to a series, including all Permian deposits in South China that overlie the Maokou Limestone. In 1995, a vote by the Subcommission on Permian Stratigraphy of the ICS adopted the Lopingian as an international standard chronostratigraphic unit. The Wuchiapinginan and Changhsingian were first introduced in 1962, by J. Z. Sheng as the "Wuchiaping Formation" and "Changhsing Formation" within
7018-450: The Middle Permian. There were no flying vertebrates, though the extinct lizard-like reptile family Weigeltisauridae from the Late Permian had extendable wings like modern gliding lizards , and are the oldest known gliding vertebrates. Permian stem-amniotes consisted of lepospondyli and batrachosaurs , according to some phylogenies; according to others, stem-amniotes are represented only by diadectomorphs . Temnospondyls reached
7139-547: The Middle and Late Permian are dominated by temperate Karoo Supergroup sediments of South Africa and the Ural region of European Russia. Early Permian terrestrial faunas of North America and Europe were dominated by primitive pelycosaur synapsids including the herbivorous edaphosaurids , and carnivorous sphenacodontids , diadectids and amphibians . Early Permian reptiles, such as acleistorhinids , were mostly small insectivores. Synapsids (the group that would later include mammals) thrived and diversified greatly during
7260-403: The Nogoa River—referred to as the ‘Ensham Project’—and the ‘Yongala’ pit, which is located approximately 5 km to the north of the main Ensham operation. Total combined production is currently in the vicinity of 9 million tonnes per annum (mtpa). Ensham Resources produces around 9 million tonnes per annum of high-energy low-ash thermal coal and small quantities of semi-soft coking coal. The coal
7381-410: The Ochoan, corresponding to the Lopingian. During the Permian, all the Earth 's major landmasses were collected into a single supercontinent known as Pangaea , with the microcontinental terranes of Cathaysia to the east. Pangaea straddled the equator and extended toward the poles, with a corresponding effect on ocean currents in the single great ocean (" Panthalassa ", the "universal sea"), and
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#17328633224857502-444: The Permian are based around the first appearance datum of specific species of conodont , an enigmatic group of jawless chordates with hard tooth-like oral elements. Conodonts are used as index fossils for most of the Palaeozoic and the Triassic. The Cisuralian Series is named after the strata exposed on the western slopes of the Ural Mountains in Russia and Kazakhstan. The name was proposed by J. B. Waterhouse in 1982 to comprise
7623-582: The Permian, representing up to a third of all insects at some localities. Mecoptera (sometimes known as scorpionflies) first appeared during the Early Permian, going on to become diverse during the Late Permian. Some Permian mecopterans, like Mesopsychidae have long proboscis that suggest they may have pollinated gymnosperms. The earliest known beetles appeared at the beginning of the Permian. Early beetles such as members of Permocupedidae were likely xylophagous , feeding on decaying wood. Several lineages such as Schizophoridae expanded into aquatic habitats by
7744-473: The Permian-Triassic boundary, corresponding to the eruption of the Siberian Traps , which released more than 5 teratonnes of CO 2 , more than doubling the atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration. A -2% δ O excursion signifies the extreme magnitude of this climatic shift. This extremely rapid interval of greenhouse gas release caused the Permian-Triassic mass extinction, as well as ushering in an extreme hothouse that persisted for several million years into
7865-454: The Permian. Xenacanthiformes , another extinct group of shark-like chondrichthyans, were common in freshwater habitats, and represented the apex predators of freshwater ecosystems. Four floristic provinces in the Permian are recognised, the Angaran , Euramerican, Gondwanan, and Cathaysian realms. The Carboniferous Rainforest Collapse would result in the replacement of lycopsid -dominated forests with tree-fern dominated ones during
7986-420: The Permian. The end of the Early Permian ( Cisuralian ) saw a major faunal turnover, with most lineages of primitive " pelycosaur " synapsids becoming extinct, being replaced by more advanced therapsids . The end of the Capitanian Stage of the Permian was marked by the major Capitanian mass extinction event , associated with the eruption of the Emeishan Traps . The Permian (along with the Paleozoic) ended with
8107-456: The Permian. The extinct order Productida was the predominant group of Permian brachiopods, accounting for up to about half of all Permian brachiopod genera. Brachiopods also served as important ecosystem engineers in Permian reef complexes. Amongst ammonoids , Goniatitida were a major group during the Early-Mid Permian, but declined during the Late Permian. Members of the order Prolecanitida were less diverse. The Ceratitida originated from
8228-515: The Permian. This is likely due to competition by Hemiptera , due to their similar mouthparts and therefore ecology. Primitive relatives of damselflies and dragonflies ( Meganisoptera ), which include the largest flying insects of all time, also declined during the Permian. Holometabola , the largest group of modern insects, also diversified during this time. " Grylloblattidans ", an extinct group of winged insects thought to be related to modern ice crawlers , reached their apex of diversity during
8349-444: The Premier coal mine at Collie in Western Australia's south west (steam coal for domestic markets), and a 40% interest in the Bengalla coal mine in the Hunter Valley of New South Wales (steam coal for both export and domestic markets). Coal production at the Curragh mine during the 2009 March quarter totalled 2.157 million tonnes, comprising 1.451 million tonnes of metallurgical coal and 706,000 tonnes of steaming coal, down 13.5% on
8470-403: The Springvale Mine, undermining swamps of "National Environmental Significance" and dumping up to 50 million litres a day of mine effluent into the Coxs River which also flows through the Blue Mountains World Heritage area and into Sydney's drinking water catchments . Coalpac acquired the assets of the Lithgow Coal Company in February 2008. These assets include the Cullen Valley Mine located in
8591-439: The State's coal-fired electricity. The company sells approximately 40% of its coal to export markets, primarily for use in power stations and steel mills in Japan, Korea, Taiwan and Europe. Coal is exported through ports at Newcastle and Port Kembla in New South Wales. Centennial Coal has been responsible for more than 900 pollution notices between 2000 and 2013 from the NSW Environment Protection Authority (EPA). In 2015 it
8712-521: The UK, Europe, South America, Korea, Taiwan and India. BMC owns and operates two open-cut metallurgical coal mines in the Bowen Basin – South Walker Creek Mine and Poitrel Mine. BMC is owned by BHP (80 per cent) and Mitsui and Co (20 per cent). The Mount Arthur coal mine is a large open-cut mine near Muswellbrook in the Hunter Valley, New South Wales, producing approximately 16 million tonnes per annum. Centennial Coal , located predominantly in New South Wales,
8833-636: The Usolka section in the southern Urals, which was ratified in 2018. The GSSP is defined by the first appearance of Sweetognathus binodosus . The Artinskian was named after the city of Arti in Sverdlovsk Oblast , Russia. It was named by Karpinsky in 1874. The Artinskian currently lacks a defined GSSP. The proposed definition for the base of the Artinskian is the first appearance of Sweetognathus aff. S. whitei. The Kungurian takes its name after Kungur ,
8954-563: The Western Coalfield of New South Wales. Coalpac has been operating in the Lithgow district since 1989. The company currently operates the Cullen Valley open cut mine and the Invincible open cut mine. See also effects of the mining operation on surrounding property. Cornwall Coal Company is a wholly owned subsidiary of Cement Australia. The company operates underground and open-cut coal mines, and
9075-697: The Word Formation by Johan August Udden in 1916, Glenister and Furnish in 1961 was the first publication to use it as a chronostratigraphic term as a substage of the Guadalupian Stage. The GSSP for the base of the Wordian is located in Guadalupe Pass, Texas, within the sediments of the Getaway Limestone Member of the Cherry Canyon Formation , which was ratified in 2001. The base of the Wordian
9196-525: The Wuchiapingian, followed by a slight rise during the Changhsingian. The Permian was cool in comparison to most other geologic time periods, with modest pole to Equator temperature gradients. At the start of the Permian, the Earth was still in the Late Paleozoic icehouse (LPIA), which began in the latest Devonian and spanned the entire Carboniferous period, with its most intense phase occurring during
9317-506: The amount of lava estimated to have been produced during this period, the worst-case scenario is the release of enough carbon dioxide from the eruptions to raise world temperatures five degrees Celsius. Another hypothesis involves ocean venting of hydrogen sulfide gas. Portions of the deep ocean will periodically lose all of its dissolved oxygen allowing bacteria that live without oxygen to flourish and produce hydrogen sulfide gas. If enough hydrogen sulfide accumulates in an anoxic zone ,
9438-464: The ancestors of many present-day families. Rich forests were present in many areas, with a diverse mix of plant groups. The southern continent saw extensive seed fern forests of the Glossopteris flora. Oxygen levels were probably high there. The ginkgos and cycads also appeared during this period. Insects, which had first appeared and become abundant during the preceding Carboniferous, experienced
9559-571: The base of the Asselian is located in the Aidaralash River valley near Aqtöbe , Kazakhstan, which was ratified in 1996. The beginning of the stage is defined by the first appearance of Streptognathodus postfusus . The Sakmarian is named in reference to the Sakmara River in the southern Urals, and was coined by Alexander Karpinsky in 1874. The GSSP for the base of the Sakmarian is located at
9680-418: The base of the Capitanian is located at Nipple Hill in the southeast Guadalupe Mountains of Texas, and was ratified in 2001, the beginning of the stage is defined by the first appearance of Jinogondolella postserrata. The Lopingian was first introduced by Amadeus William Grabau in 1923 as the "Loping Series" after Leping , Jiangxi , China. Originally used as a lithostraphic unit, T.K. Huang in 1932 raised
9801-516: The base of the Changhsingian is located 88 cm above the base of the Changxing Limestone in the Meishan D section, Zhejiang, China and was ratified in 2005, the boundary is defined by the first appearance of Clarkina wangi. The GSSP for the base of the Triassic is located at the base of Bed 27c at the Meishan D section, and was ratified in 2001. The GSSP is defined by the first appearance of
9922-560: The centre. Production commenced in late 2006, following approval by the Minister for Infrastructure and Planning. Enhance Place Colliery near Lithgow, NSW. Pine Dale Coal Mine. Established in 1993 as a joint venture among major international companies and their Australian subsidiaries, Ensham Resources Pty Limited is one of Queensland's largest and fastest-growing thermal coal producers. Ensham's mining operations currently consist of five open-cut coal mining pits: Pits A, B, C and D either side of
10043-493: The chondrichthyan clade Holocephali , which contains living chimaeras , reached their apex of diversity during the Carboniferous-Permian, the most famous Permian representative being the "buzz-saw shark" Helicoprion , known for its unusual spiral shaped spiral tooth whorl in the lower jaw. Hybodonts , a group of shark-like chondrichthyans, were widespread and abundant members of marine and freshwater faunas throughout
10164-616: The climate became notably more arid at the end of the Carboniferous and beginning of the Permian. Nonetheless, temperatures continued to cool during most of the Asselian and Sakmarian, during which the LPIA peaked. By 287 million years ago, temperatures warmed and the South Pole ice cap retreated in what was known as the Artinskian Warming Event (AWE), though glaciers remained present in the uplands of eastern Australia, and perhaps also
10285-442: The collision of Euramerica and Gondwana during the Carboniferous. Pangaea was surrounded by the superocean Panthalassa . The Carboniferous rainforest collapse left behind vast regions of desert within the continental interior. Amniotes, which could better cope with these drier conditions, rose to dominance in place of their amphibian ancestors. Various authors recognise at least three, and possibly four extinction events in
10406-713: The conodont Hindeodus parvus . The Russian Tatarian Stage includes the Lopingian, Capitanian and part of the Wordian, while the underlying Kazanian includes the rest of the Wordian as well as the Roadian. In North America, the Permian is divided into the Wolfcampian (which includes the Nealian and the Lenoxian stages); the Leonardian (Hessian and Cathedralian stages); the Guadalupian; and
10527-540: The continental interior by the more advanced seed ferns and early conifers as a result of the Carboniferous rainforest collapse . At the close of the Permian, lycopod and equisete swamps reminiscent of Carboniferous flora survived only in Cathaysia , a series of equatorial islands in the Paleo-Tethys Ocean that later would become South China . The Permian saw the radiation of many important conifer groups, including
10648-557: The current mine layout. The Bloomfield Group is an Australian owned group of private companies which operate in the Hunter Valley , New South Wales. The Group has interests in mining and engineering. It operates two open-cut coal mines: Bloomfield at East Maitland and Rix's Creek at Singleton . Rix's Creek is 5 km north west of Singleton on the New England Highway . Situated in the Whittingham Coal Measures, it
10769-665: The decline of early synapsid clades was apparently a slow event that lasted about 20 Ma, from the Sakmarian to the end of the Kungurian . Predator-prey interactions among terrestrial synapsids became more dynamic. If terrestrial deposition ended around the end of the Cisuralian in North America and began in Russia during the early Guadalupian, a continuous record of the transition is not preserved. Uncertain dating has led to suggestions that there
10890-521: The diverse Dinocephalia . Dinocephalians become extinct at the end of the Middle Permian, during the Capitanian mass extinction event . Late Permian faunas are dominated by advanced therapsids such as the predatory sabertoothed gorgonopsians and herbivorous beaked dicynodonts , alongside large herbivorous pareiasaur parareptiles . The Archosauromorpha , the group of reptiles that would give rise to
11011-458: The earliest Permian of France. The oldest known fossils definitively assignable to modern cycads are known from the Late Permian. In Cathaysia, where a wet tropical frost-free climate prevailed, the Noeggerathiales , an extinct group of tree fern-like progymnosperms were a common component of the flora The earliest Permian (~ 298 million years ago) Cathyasian Wuda Tuff flora, representing
11132-556: The early Wuchiapingian, following the emplacement of the Emeishan Traps, global temperatures declined as carbon dioxide was weathered out of the atmosphere by the large igneous province's emplaced basalts. The late Wuchiapingian saw the finale of the Late Palaeozoic Ice Age, when the last Australian glaciers melted. The end of the Permian is marked by a temperature excursion, much larger than the Emeishan Thermal Excursion, at
11253-431: The end of the Permian. Nautiloids , a subclass of cephalopods, surprisingly survived this occurrence. There is evidence that magma , in the form of flood basalt , poured onto the Earth's surface in what is now called the Siberian Traps , for thousands of years, contributing to the environmental stress that led to mass extinction. The reduced coastal habitat and highly increased aridity probably also contributed. Based on
11374-565: The family Daraelitidae within Prolecanitida during the mid-Permian, and extensively diversified during the Late Permian. Only three families of trilobite are known from the Permian, Proetidae , Brachymetopidae and Phillipsiidae . Diversity, origination and extinction rates during the Early Permian were low. Trilobites underwent a diversification during the Kungurian-Wordian, the last in their evolutionary history, before declining during
11495-677: The fiscal year 2008 of 531,000 tons came from the New Oakleigh mine in the West Moreton district, near Ipswich. In September 2008, the company announced the sale of New Saraji Coal project to the BHP Mitsubishi Alliance (BMA). Peabody Pacific is one of Australia's largest mining companies with a total of 10 operations in Queensland and New South Wales. In 2003, Peabody Energy shipped a record 185 million tonnes (204 million tons) of coal to its clients worldwide. Queensland hosts six of
11616-476: The following Triassic Period belongs to the Mesozoic Era. The concept of the Permian was introduced in 1841 by geologist Sir Roderick Murchison , who named it after the region of Perm in Russia . The Permian witnessed the diversification of the two groups of amniotes , the synapsids and the sauropsids ( reptiles ). The world at the time was dominated by the supercontinent Pangaea , which had formed due to
11737-429: The gas can rise into the atmosphere. Oxidizing gases in the atmosphere would destroy the toxic gas, but the hydrogen sulfide would soon consume all of the atmospheric gas available. Hydrogen sulfide levels might have increased dramatically over a few hundred years. Models of such an event indicate that the gas would destroy ozone in the upper atmosphere allowing ultraviolet radiation to kill off species that had survived
11858-687: The introduction of the term Permian , rocks of equivalent age in Germany had been named the Rotliegend and Zechstein , and in Great Britain as the New Red Sandstone . The term Permian was introduced into geology in 1841 by Sir Roderick Impey Murchison , president of the Geological Society of London , after extensive Russian explorations undertaken with Édouard de Verneuil in the vicinity of
11979-524: The joint venture. The operator of the mine, Ensham Resources Pty Limited, together with the company's marketing arm, Ensham Coal Sales are based in Brisbane. Ensham Resources produces around 9 million tonnes per annum of high-energy low-ash thermal coal and small quantities of semi-soft coking coal. The coal is exported to leading energy producers in Japan, Korea, India and China and other countries. Illawarra Coal produces premium-quality, hard coking coal (used in
12100-736: The late Carboniferous in Euramerica, and result in the differentiation of the Cathaysian floras from those of Euramerica. The Gondwanan floristic region was dominated by Glossopteridales , a group of woody gymnosperm plants, for most of the Permian, extending to high southern latitudes. The ecology of the most prominent glossopterid, Glossopteris , has been compared to that of bald cypress , living in mires with waterlogged soils. The tree-like calamites , distant relatives of modern horsetails , lived in coal swamps and grew in bamboo -like vertical thickets. A mostly complete specimen of Arthropitys from
12221-528: The latter part of the Pennsylvanian epoch. A significant trend of increasing aridification can be observed over the course of the Cisuralian. Early Permian aridification was most notable in Pangaean localities at near-equatorial latitudes. Sea levels also rose notably in the Early Permian as the LPIA slowly waned. At the Carboniferous-Permian boundary, a warming event occurred. In addition to becoming warmer,
12342-452: The mine had between 20 and 30 Indigenous employees on site among an employee population of approximately 230. One of the world's largest privately owned energy companies with major investments in oil refineries and petroleum products, primarily in Japan. J-Power (formerly Electric Power Development Corporation (EPDC)) is one of Japan's largest power utilities. LG International is one of Korea's largest diversified conglomerates with interests in
12463-446: The mine sites operated by Peabody Pacific. Four of these, Burton , North Goonyella , Eaglefield and Millennium span the length of the Bowen Basin coalfield. The Wilkie Creek mine site operates within the Surat Basin. Burton mine is located in the Bowen Basin, about 150 kilometres south-west of Mackay. Mining commenced in 1996 and now extends over three individual operating pits: Plumtree, Wallanbah and Broadmeadows. The open-cut mine uses
12584-455: The mines are open-cut, using dragline and truck/shovel fleets for overburden removal. Coal seams are mined by front end loader and hydraulic excavators, and coal is transported to mine preparation plants by large capacity haul trucks. The mines managed by the BMA have a capacity to produce 58 million tonnes of coal annually, which are currently sold to over 93 customers in 23 countries, including Japan,
12705-514: The most extensive extinction event recorded in paleontology : the Permian–Triassic extinction event . 90 to 95% of marine species became extinct , as well as 70% of all land organisms. It is also the only known mass extinction of insects. Recovery from the Permian–Triassic extinction event was protracted; on land, ecosystems took 30 million years to recover. Trilobites , which had thrived since Cambrian times, finally became extinct before
12826-469: The most potent greenhouse gases ) into the atmosphere to raise world temperatures an additional five degrees Celsius. The frozen methane hypothesis helps explain the increase in carbon-12 levels found midway in the Permian–Triassic boundary layer. It also helps explain why the first phase of the layer's extinctions was land-based, the second was marine-based (and starting right after the increase in C-12 levels), and
12947-414: The mountainous regions of far northern Siberia. Southern Africa also retained glaciers during the late Cisuralian in upland environments. The AWE also witnessed aridification of a particularly great magnitude. In the late Kungurian, cooling resumed, resulting in a cool glacial interval that lasted into the early Capitanian, though average temperatures were still much higher than during the beginning of
13068-692: The next geologic epoch, the Triassic. The Permian climate was also extremely seasonal and characterised by megamonsoons , which produced high aridity and extreme seasonality in Pangaea's interiors. Precipitation along the western margins of the Palaeo-Tethys Ocean was very high. Evidence for the megamonsoon includes the presence of megamonsoonal rainforests in the Qiangtang Basin of Tibet, enormous seasonal variation in sedimentation, bioturbation, and ichnofossil deposition recorded in sedimentary facies in
13189-591: The previous quarter. A publicly listed mining company, Whitehaven Coal is currently developing and operating coal projects in the Gunnedah Region of New South Wales and exploring other opportunities. The Group operates six open-cut mines, Blackwater, Canyon (formerly Whitehaven), Tarrawonga, Werris Creek, Rocglen (formerly Belmont) and Sunnyside and is developing the Narrabri North underground mine. Goonyella Riverside Mine Goonyella Riverside Mine
13310-716: The production of steel) and some energy coal. Based in Wollongong and operating in the Illawarra and Wollondilly regions south of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Illawarra Coal operates three high-volume underground longwall mines: Appin/Appin West, West Cliff (to the west of the Illawarra Escarpment) and Dendrobium (on the eastern side of the Escarpment). Known as the Douglas Project during its development stages, Appin West
13431-439: The result of intense heating by the sun of a surface devoid of vegetation cover. A number of older types of plants and animals died out or became marginal elements. The Permian began with the Carboniferous flora still flourishing. About the middle of the Permian a major transition in vegetation began. The swamp -loving lycopod trees of the Carboniferous, such as Lepidodendron and Sigillaria , were progressively replaced in
13552-567: The same area hundreds of years prior, and which is now located in the Perm Krai administrative region. Between 1853 and 1867, Jules Marcou recognised Permian strata in a large area of North America from the Mississippi River to the Colorado River and proposed the name Dyassic , from Dyas and Trias , though Murchison rejected this in 1871. The Permian system was controversial for over
13673-408: The southeastern South China. The Central Pangean Mountains , which began forming due to the collision of Laurasia and Gondwana during the Carboniferous, reached their maximum height during the early Permian around 295 million years ago, comparable to the present Himalayas , but became heavily eroded as the Permian progressed. The Kazakhstania block collided with Baltica during the Cisuralian, while
13794-570: The spread of conifers and their increasing prevalence throughout terrestrial ecosystems. Bennettitales , which would go on to become in widespread the Mesozoic, first appeared during the Cisuralian in China. Lyginopterids , which had declined in the late Pennsylvanian and subsequently have a patchy fossil record, survived into the Late Permian in Cathaysia and equatorial east Gondwana. The Permian ended with
13915-417: The terrace mining technique supported by a truck and shovel fleet. It is operated under contract by Thiess . North Goonyella underground and Eaglefield open-cut mines are located at the northern end of the Bowen Basin, about 160 kilometres west of Mackay. The combined operations produce around three million tonnes (3.3 million tons) of coking coal a year from a lease of 3,341 hectares. Mining commenced from
14036-413: The toxic gas. There are species that can metabolize hydrogen sulfide. Another hypothesis builds on the flood basalt eruption theory. An increase in temperature of five degrees Celsius would not be enough to explain the death of 95% of life. But such warming could slowly raise ocean temperatures until frozen methane reservoirs below the ocean floor near coastlines melted, expelling enough methane (among
14157-553: The underground in 1994. Millennium mine is located near the town of Moranbah in the Bowen Basin. Mining commenced in May 2006 at a rate of 1.5 million tonnes (1.65 million tons) a year. The mine plans to increase its annual saleable PCI and coking coal production to three million tonnes (3.3 million tons) as port constraints are eased at Dalrymple Bay Coal Terminal. Millennium provides a low-ash coking coal and low-to-mid-volatile PCI coal to customers in Japan, Korea and India. Wilkie Creek mine
14278-514: Was acquired in September 2010 by Thailand-based Banpu , which operates in the coal and energy industries. Centennial is a coal mining and marketing company supplying thermal and coking coal to the domestic and export markets. The company has five operating coal mines in NSW, making Centennial one of the largest underground coal producers in NSW. It is a major fuel supplier in NSW, producing approximately 40% of
14399-636: Was named in 1968 in reference to the Road Canyon Member of the Word Formation in Texas. The GSSP for the base of the Roadian is located 42.7m above the base of the Cutoff Formation in Stratotype Canyon, Guadalupe Mountains, Texas, and was ratified in 2001. The beginning of the stage is defined by the first appearance of Jinogondolella nankingensis . The Wordian was named in reference to
14520-722: Was openly criticised by the CFMEU Mining & Energy Division and the Queensland Opposition Leader Deb Frecklington who stated that approvals to the mine operation should be reviewed. The mine is colour coded to "Goonyella Green", and the haul trucks were given names of racehorses. Coal is exported by the Goonyella railway line via Hay Point to markets worldwide. The mine has recorded four fatal accidents since 1990. Queensland miner Tyrone Buckton died in 2018 after being diagnosed with silicosis which
14641-661: Was responsible for a major release of coal fines into the Wollangambe River and World Heritage listed areas of the Blue Mountains National Park . Centennial Coal has been dumping mine effluent into the Wollangambe River for approximately 30 years, effectively killing large sections of it. Between 2000 and 2015, Centennial's Clarence Colliery has been cited for more than 65 non-compliance breaches of its licence. As of 2015, Centennial Coal has applied to extend
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