February 15, 2026 - Australia's federal government has approved a seven-year extension to the life of US producer Peabody Energy and Chinese-Australian producer Yancoal's 4.1mn t/yr Middlemount pulverised coal injection (PCI) and coking coal mine.

The two companies will be able to mine coal at Middlemount until 2044 under the proposal approved by Australia's Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment, and Water (DCCEEW) on 13 February. The approval is subject to a range of environmental conditions.

Yancoal produced 2.6mn t of saleable coal at Middlemount in 2025, up by 12pc from 2024, it said in a quarterly report on 19 January.

DCCEEW's Middlemount approval comes less than a week after Peabody Energy restarted longwall production at its 4.7mn t/yr Centurion coking coal mine after an eight-year pause. The company will ramp up production at the mine in 2026, Peabody's chief executive Jim Grech said on 6 February.

But Australian coking coal producers are facing challenges. Queensland's state government — which oversees the country's largest coking coal region — downgraded its July 2025-June 2026 coal export forecast because of weak steel output and extended mine shutdowns in December 2025.

Australian forecaster the Office of the Chief Economist (OCE) also downgraded its coking coal export prediction for 2025-27 because of adjustments to mine-level production forecasts on 19 December 2025.

Australian producers BHP and QCoal closed coking coal mines in Queensland over royalty, pricing, and cost issues in 2025. Other producers may not make many new investments in the state. Major producers are on capital strike, although most are not saying so publicly, investor Gordon Galt told Argus in November 2025.

Australian producers exported 147mn t of coking coal out of Australia in 2025, down by 4.1pc from 2024, likely because of mine shutdowns and weather disruptions.