School was in at Mount Thorley Warkworth (MTW) Mine on Wednesday, May 23 when students from Singleton’s St Catherine’s Catholic College visited as part of the Upper Hunter Mining Dialogue’s School Mine Tours Program.

From a mine lookout, the 44 St Catherine’s Year 5 students had a panoramic view of the mine operations and presentations from mine workers explained all aspects of mining from exploration to end of mine life before reboarding their bus for a tour of the mine site including the mine’s workshops, coal washery, tailings and rehabilitation areas.

The tour was part of the Dialogue’s School Mine Tours Program which will see an estimated 1000 Year 5 and Year 9 students from Upper Hunter schools tour mine sites in 2018. The school tours program is scheduled to include 27 individual tours from 18 participating schools visiting 13 different mine sites across the Upper Hunter.

The tours program aims to offer a fact-based, first-hand educational experience to teach local students about the impacts and benefits of coal mining in the Upper Hunter.

The Dialogue offers the free tours to all schools in the Singleton-Muswellbrook educational catchment and the program uses educational materials and messaging developed by a Dialogue working group made up of teachers, community members and industry and local government representatives.