A Case Study on Longwall Mining under the Tidal Waters of Lake Macquarie

This article presents a case study of longwall mining under the tidal waters of Lake Macquarie, south of Newcastle, NSW. The mining operation took place at the Wyee Colliery from 1998 to 2002, without any incidence of ingress of water from the lake. This paper describes i) the design strategy used for a viable and robust mine layout that minimises the risk of water ingress ii) observations made during the operational phase and iii) a practical tool for designing underground coal mines under surface water bodies.