Australia holds the fourth largest coal reserves in the world and the Australian economy relies on coal as a primary export commodity. The majority of the coal in Australia is bituminous or sub bituminous.
According to a 2013 World Energy Survey Australia held 84 billion short tons (Bst) of recoverable coal reserves.
Australia is the corporate headquarters for White Energy. White Energy has corporate offices in Sydney, Brisbane and South Australia, a research and development facility at Cessnock and is the owner of a large tenement in South Australia (EL4534 which is owned by South Australian Coal Limited).