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Narrabri Shire is home to emerging coal and gas industries and has been labelled the “New coal frontier” in New South Wales.
Coal deposits within the Narrabri Shire area are estimated to contain around 12% of reserves available in New South Wales. Narrabri Shire has three existing open cut coal mines that are currently extracting premium coal for export markets. This will be followed soon with an underground mine that is due to open in the first half of 2009, 25km south of Narrabri.
Further exploration of the coal reserves has resulted in the discovery of both natural conventional methane and coal seam methane gas. This exciting discovery means this area alone is estimated to have the potential to supply the entire New South Wales gas market for the next fifty years.
The organisation that has undertaken the most amount of exploration and development of the gas field has been Eastern Star Gas. Not only is Eastern Star Gas an exploration company but it is a vertically integrated producer able to value add to its discoveries by turning natural gas into electricity through its own gas fired power station.
Narrabri Shire has been identified as the most promising gas field in New South Wales. Demand is increasing with the need to boost gas supply to the east coast and to power stations in the Hunter Region. Although gas exploration and production is not labour intensive, the benefits of piping gas to industrial areas is a great asset to Narrabri Shire in helping to attract new business and broadening the economic base.
A diverse range of ancillary businesses are calling Narrabri Shire home as they relocate to take advantage of the growing resource industries.
There are plans to develop infrastructure within the area and beyond. This includes the improvement of rail infrastructure comprising of the proposed Melbourne to Brisbane Inland Rail Alliance. Some of the benefits seen by Narrabri Shire due to these emerging industries are:
- Increased demand for all types of housing.
- Increased demand for temporary accommodation.
- Increased demand for serviced industrial land close to the mines
- Increased use of air and rental car services.
- Increased employment opportunities both within the resource industries and support businesses
 Mine Locations Map
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