JOB threats to 750 Centennial Coal mineworkers were examined at NSW budget estimates yesterday, which also confirmed that coal exploration would no longer be allowed around historic Wollombi.
Origin Energy announced in February that it intended closing its Eraring power station in 2025, seven years ahead of its original schedule.
Eraring is fed by the nearby Myuna and Mandalong underground mines. As the Newcastle Herald reported at the time, Lake Macquarie state MP Greg Piper estimated the power station closure could cost 2000 jobs across the Westlakes community.
Myuna and Mandalong are privatised former state mines owned by Centennial Coal, which was taken over in 2010 by Thai company Banpu.
Centennial told the Herald in February it would look to export coal now bound for Eraring. Mandalong mine had rail access to take coal to the Port of Newcastle but Myuna did not, and new coal-handling facilities would be needed to make its coal available for export.
Read the full article published in the Newcastle Herald 5th May 2022