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Abstract
Despite the economic importance of coal to the Australian economy, detailed studies of controls on variation in coal type are
remarkably few. However, important contributions have been made in the understanding of coal facies development. Tertiary
lignite deposits of the Gippsland Basin provide key insights into the development of lithotype cyclicity and its relationship to
relative sea-level changes, with individual paling-up cycles being correlated to parasequences. Studies of Permian hard coals
have identified relationships between coal type and surrounding sediments. Unfortunately, these relationships have been widely
over-interpreted in a manner that has diminished their real value.
D 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Depositional environment; Lignite; Black coal; Lithotype; Maceral
1. Coal in Australia
Extraction, utilization and export of coal is well
recognized as a major contributor to the Australian
economy. According to the Australian Bureau of
Statistics, in 2001 2002 coal and associated products
accounted for AUD$13.4 billion, or almost 9%, of all
goods and services exported. Coal production in
1999 2000 was 254 million t of black coal and 66
million t of brown coal, making Australia the 4th
largest black coal producing country (behind PR
China, USA and India) and the worlds largest exporter of both steaming and coking coals.
Australian coals are widely distributed both spatially and temporally, with mineable coals found in
most coal-forming periods represented except those
of the Carboniferous (Ward et al., 1995). Economically, the most important coals are those of the
Permian Sydney Gunnedah Bowen Basin of New
South Wales and Queensland and the Late Eocene to
Middle Miocene deposits of the Gippsland Basin in
Victoria. Petroleum products have also been identified as being sourced from many of these coals, e.g.
the gas resources of the Permian Cooper Basin and
the oil and gas resources in Bass Straight (Gippsland
Basin).
The Permian coals are generally hard coals between high volatile bituminous and anthracite rank,
producing a wide variety of commercial products
including thermal, hard and soft coking, PCI, etc.
The Tertiary coals of Victoria are lignite in rank and
are used predominantly for power generation although
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Table 1
Author
Method
Depositional environment/
other comments
Age; Area
Carboniferous,
Hunter Valley
Permian, Sydney
Basin
maceral
microlithotype, lithotype
Permian, Gunnedah
Basin
explanation of dulling up
Permian, Sydney and
sequences
Gunnedah Basins
first paper on TPI/GI
Permian, Sydney and
technique
Gunnedah Basins
relates microlithotypes to a Permian, Sydney and
variety of sedimentary
Gunnedah Basins
environments
terrestrial/telmatic/limnic Permian, Liddell Seam,
upper Hunter Valley,
using Hacquebard and
New South Wales
Donaldson 1969. facies
diagram
relates microlithotypes to a Permian, Cooper Basin
variety of sedimentary
environments
Permian, Queensland
combines a variety of
techniques to produce a
facies model for coal
deposition
from Permian to
Cenozoic, Australia
ternary microlithotype
mostly Permian
diagrams with
of Australia
superimposed clastic
environments
relates microlithotypes to
Permian, Australia
a variety of sedimentary
environments
TPI/GI
microlithotype, maceral,
sulphur
maceral, microlithotype
Smyth, 1984
microlithotype
maceral, palynology,
botany
Cook, 1981
Diessel and Smyth, 1995
microlithotype
Gould, 1980
dispersed organic
matter
plant megafossils
Triassic, Gunnedah
Basin New
South Wales
dominantly conifer derived Middle Jurassic,
coals in a moist temperate Surat Basin
climate
ASTM rank
Ro%
bituminous
0.6 1.2
bituminous
bituminous
bituminous
bituminous
hvb
bituminous
bituminous
bituminous
and lignite
bituminous
lacustrine environments
sub-bituminous
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Table 1 (continued)
Author
Method
palynology
lithotypes, plant
megafossils,
lithotypes, palynology,
macerals, proximate
and ultimate analysis,
sequence stratigraphy,
sea level change
explanation of lightening
up of lithotypes using
sequence stratigraphy
and climatic changes
palynology
Partridge, 1997
palynology
geochemistry
General models
Diessel, 1998; Diessel et al.,
1995, 2000
Diessel and Gammidge, 1998
Depositional environment/
other comments
Age; Area
ASTM rank
Eocene, St Vincent
Basin, South Australia
Eocene, Bass Basin,
Victoria
Oligocene/Miocene,
Latrobe Valley,
Victoria
lignite
Oligocene/Miocene,
Gippsland Basin,
Victoria
Oligocene/Miocene,
Victoria
lignite
Ro%
lignite
lignite
sequence stratigraphy
vitrinite reflectance
2. Facies studies
Given the economic importance of coal to the
Australian economy, surprisingly little detailed work
as been done on coal facies, especially on a regional
scale. There are a number of interesting problems
which detailed facies studies would help resolve,
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3. Conclusions
Despite some very detailed work in selected deposits, coal facies studies are generally poorly represented
in Australia. This is especially significant given the
value of coal to the Australian economy and the value
of coal facies studies into understanding the geological variability of deposits. However, important studies on Tertiary lignites and new ways of thinking
about coal development based on standard maceral
analysis have had large impacts.
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