Australian mining company South32 has announced that it will not proceed with its investment to extend its Dendrobium metallurgical coal mine in New South Wales due to low potential returns. "While our work on the project demonstrated the potential to meaningfully extend the life of the Dendrobium mine, expected returns ... are not sufficient to support an investment relative to alternatives considered for the complex," the company states. The company had planned to extract an additional 78 million mt of metallurgical coal from the underground operation, west of Wollongong, until 2047. It is noteworthy that initially the extension application was rejected by the Independent Planning Commission in 2021 and later its revised plan received State Significant Infrastructure status by the New South Wales government.
Meanwhile, the company said it would continue to optimize the Illawarra met coal complex, including the transition of its Appin mine to a single longwall from the fiscal year 2025. Investments at Appin include planned work worth $260 million to install additional ventilation capacity to enable mining in its Area 7 section until at least 2039, South32 added.